Israel Adesanya shares thoughts on Jon Jones’ arrest: “It sucks to be him”

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has made no secret of his disdain for UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Given the pair’s animosity toward one another, it should come as no surprise that Adesanya has some thoughts on Jones’ recent DWI arrest.

Adesanya’s first reactions to Jones’ arrest came in the form of a few memes, but he claims to have measured his public response to the story because he didn’t want to violate his “code.”

“I did put some memes up because you have to give the people what they want, but at the end of the day, there’s some stuff that I said privately to my people that’s not gonna go out,” Adesanya told ESPN (via MMA Fighting). “Some stuff that meme-worthy wasn’t really kosher, even for my code.

“He’s a young black man at the top of his game and he’s throwing it all away,” Adesanya added. “A lot of what [Daniel Cormier] said, same thing. Like, I felt bad for him when I watched the body cam footage as well. At the end, when he was just sobbing, I felt bad for him. Because I can imagine myself in that position. And I even bet you in the back of the squad car, he’s thinking, ‘F*ck, Israel’s gonna have a lot of material with this one.’ I bet you. I swear to God. But, like I said, a lot of it’s never going to see the light of day because it’s funny for me but at the same time I feel sad to see a young, black, skinny [expletive] who wishes he had the career at the beginning like I am right now, and he’s just throwing it all away. So I’ve taken lessons from watching a guy like him pave the way, if you will, and I won’t repeat the same mistakes. I’ll make my own. Sex tape dropping 2020! Get ready.”

Jones avoided jail time for his crimes, instead being sentences to a brief period of house arrest. Adesanya points out that, when pretty much everybody is stuck inside due to the coronavirus pandemic, this is perhaps not the most suitable punishment.

“Bro, we’re all stuck at home,” Adesanya joked. “What do you expect? ‘Ooo, we’re gonna put him on home detention. Oh no.’”

“I feel bad,” Adesanya added, reverting to a more serious tone.” Put it this way, I wouldn’t want to be in a house with him right now. That’s just all I’ll say. . . I said it in one of my posts about quarantine, like staying strong because a lot of people spend time with their families and realize they don’t like them, and a lot of people fix their relationship with their spouses, with their fathers, with their mothers, whatever, and I just feel like something like that happen in my household would just dampen the whole atmosphere. It just sucks. It sucks to be him.”

What do you think of these comments from Israel Adesanya?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/8/2020.