UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones and upstart Middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya might cross paths sometime in the future, but their recent "feud" appears to be over for now.
The two fighters traded verbal jabs in the lead-up to Saturday's epic UFC 236 PPV, in which Adesanya defeated Kelvin Gastelum to earn the interim championship. Adesanya had said he was "hunting" for Jones, which prompted Jones to respond, "I’ll make you call me daddy by the third."
However, it's clear that Adesanya isn't interested in that superfight just yet.
During an appearance on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show," Adesanya said he still has some people to go through before he's ready to take on the Light Heavyweight champ.
"Let me just beat all the top middleweights in my division, all of the relevant ones, once, and then I'll move up for a superfight with Jon Jones," Adesanya told Helwani. "Right now, he's the best pound-for-pound, right? I'm Player 1. He's the final boss in the game. I still got some people to beat in between."
"He's going to get this work, but not until I'm ready to give him this work."
In a string of since-deleted tweets, Jones issued the following statement regarding The Last Style Bender's recent remarks (H/T MMA Junkie):
"Bro how are you going to call me out talking about your “hunting the goat”, and then call me a bully for replying to you?? You sound like you know you can’t beat me right now, so if that’s the case, keep my name out your mouth and we won’t have these problems."
"He doesn’t even have to show respect if he doesn’t want to, just don’t back down once you’re addressed next time. Kind of makes you look like a lil bitch real talk"
"Basically. Next topic, I won’t even reply to his response. He’s alright shown me his stripes… Ain’t Ready"