Israel Adesanya’s Coach Argues Unlike Jon Jones, “The Last Stylebender” Isn’t “Reluctant” to Take HW Fight

There’s been no shortage of talk about Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya fighting as of late. But, the head coach for the UFC’s middleweight champ, Eugene Bareman, continues to drive for a bout between Adesanya and Stipe Miocic…

Adesanya vs. Jones?

For sometime now, Jones and Adesanya have been trading verbal jabs online and through the media. The beef really kicked off following Adesanya’s win over Anderson Silva in February, when he proceeded to proclaim he intends to defeat another G.O.A.T contender in Jones. The light-heavyweight champ didn’t care for Adesanya’s comments, and since then the verbal war between the two has continued.

Bareman’s recent comments

Well, recently Bareman turned heads throughout MMA by saying he’d like to see Adesanya fight the reigning, UFC heavyweight king Miocic. In a follow up interview with Submission Radio, not only did Bareman repeat that desire, he took a poke at Jones while doing so (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“Jon Jones a hundred percent needs Israel,” Bareman said. “Israel does not need Jon Jones at all. Israel is baiting Jon Jones at every corner, and Jon Jones just keeps biting because Jon Jones knows he needs Israel. Let’s not talk about Jon Jones, let’s talk about Stipe (Miocic). If we have to talk about this superfight, let’s talk about Stipe. Let’s talk about Israel going up. Has anybody gone up and won two titles but skipped a division? Well, there you go. There’s a bit of history.

“Jon Jones so far has not been willing to go to heavyweight, he’s been reluctant to go to heavyweight? Am I correct? Well, Israel wouldn’t be reluctant to go to heavyweight. Israel would go to heavyweight and he would fight Stipe Miocic. There you go. We’ll take that fight, Jon Jones. If you don’t want to take it, you can hang around at light heavyweight. We’ll skip light heavyweight and we’ll take that fight off you. There’s some more bait there so Jon Jones can bite on it and start doing what he does, like what these guys do. But we’ll take the fight. Don’t worry about it, Jon Jones. Let’s stop talking about Jon Jones, let’s talk about Stipe. We’ve got a bit to do. We’ve got Paulo Costa, we’ve got other things.”

How about that? Now, Jones’ boosters would argue here that the 205 champ has talked about going to heavyweight in the past, and recently, he mentioned this was still his plan (although, Adesanya has accused Jones of contradicting himself). At the end of the day, however, a fight between Jones and Adesanya seems much more plausible, provided both men win their next couple of fights.