Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones
Israel Adesanya is one of the top UFC stars at the moment and Dana White slightly compared him to Jon Jones too
Dana White was speaking to ESPN before a packed UFC 259 card. The event has three title defences with Israel Adesanya aiming to become a double champion.
The Middleweight champion takes on Jan Blachowicz, who is the current Light Heavyweight champion. Adesanya is also undefeated in his MMA career and many believe he is one of the greatest Middleweights in the history of the sport.
However, winning and holding two belts at the same time is difficult and White was asked if Adesanya would be defending the belts after UFC 259.
White confirmed that was unlikely to happen but heaped a ton of praise on the Last Stylebender:
“That is tough to do, I don’t think he will be able to defend both titles.
“The thing that I respect and love about Israel and what he is doing is, he doesn’t just want to be the Middleweight champion. Defend and do this.
“He doesn’t just want to be the Light Heavyweight champion, he wants to be great. Jon Jones was looked at as the GOAT of this sport, he wants to move up to Heavyweight, he wants to beat him too.”
White also brought up why he loved fighters like Adesanya:
“I love guys that want to do things like that and actually do it. He is not a guy that is inconsistent, doesn’t fight a lot, always injured, you know, a lot of these things.
“He really likes to fight, fight a lot and he is a durable tough kid.”
While Adesanya and Jones have had their rivalry and there is a chance the Stylebender moves up to the Heavyweight division to chase down his rival, White wasn’t ruling Blachowicz out of this fight.
This will be Blachowicz’s first title defence and he should have the weight advantage. Adesanya is taller than his rival and that was something that caught White out in the pre-fight press conference.
This is going to be an excellent fight and Adesanya could make history by winning the belt. However, there is also the chance that he gets his first MMA loss and that would add more credibility to Blachowicz’s title reign.
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