There’s massive hurdles in Adesanya versus Jones fight, UFC boss declares

UFC president Dana White has cast doubt over a potential match-up between rivals Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya after the American moved up to heavyweight.

Jones insists he has ‘no intention’ of moving back down to light-heavyweight after becoming a two-time champion in that division, as he looks ahead to landing a title in the top weight class.

The pair have been engaged in a war of words over the last year, and that continued this year as Jones mocked Adesanya for moving up to light-heavy after he left the weight category, saying: ‘When I move, you move, just like that.’

And White believes the two fighters now have ‘massive hurdles’ to overcome, especially now with Adesanya set to take on Jan Blachowicz.

“With Jon Jones moving up to heavyweight, I don’t know,’ he told ESPN, via MMA Fighting. ‘Then there’s all the talk between him and Adesanya. I don’t know. Adesanya still has to fight Jan, which is a tough fight and Jones at heavyweight.

“There’s so many massive hurdles that these guys have to get over. So don’t even get yourself excited thinking about Jon Jones vs Adesanya.’

White believes the fight would only take place at light-heavyweight, but after Jones’ stern words about not moving back down, he feels the showdown could have been ‘blown out of the water’.

“Light heavyweight,’ White responded when asked about the weight class for the potential fight. ‘Jon Jones fought light heavyweight his whole career. Adesanya’s willing to move up to fight Jan for the title.

“But does Jon Jones even want to go back to light heavyweight ever again? That just blows the whole thing right out of the water.’

At the start of the year Jones said he was moving on from light-heavyweight because he didn’t want to ‘slow down the division’ and was keen to see another champion in the division.

“The reason why I decided to vacate the light heavyweight belt and not hang onto it is that I knew my move to heavyweight was going to take a really long time,’ Jones told Bleacher Report.

“I didn’t want to be one of those athletes to slow down the division. I feel like I’ve held onto the light heavyweight championship for so long—I’ve ruined so many people’s dreams of being the light heavyweight champion—and now it’s time for someone else to have it.

“I thought it was the right thing to do for everyone else. I could have done the selfish thing and held onto it and come up with a bunch of excuses and lied to the fans and said I was going to come back down to light heavyweight and made all these guys wait. I didn’t want to do that. I have no intentions of ever going back to light heavyweight.’

Jones will be eyeing up a clash with the likes of Stipe Miocic, who currently holds the heavyweight title, and could face the winner of his fight against No 1 contender Francis Ngannou.

Culled from dailymail.co.uk