Following the UFC’s first card in Azerbaijan, UFC CEO Dana White announced Jon Jones‘ retirement, revealing that the heavyweight champ called him the night before and relinquished the heavyweight title.
The way Israel Adesanya sees things, however, although Jones may have vacated the belt and sailed off into the metaphorical sunset for now, we haven’t seen the last of the former pound-for-pound king.
During a special edition of The Ariel Helwani Show live from International Fight Week, The Last Stylebender spoke on a number of topics, including Jones’ retirement.
The way he sees things, Jones is, for lack of a better word, trolling or rage-baiting the MMA community.
“I think he’ll come back. I think he’ll come back. It’s the drama of it. … This is all just. What do they call it now, the kids call it? Rage baiting. It’s working. And again, I don’t agree with the fact holding up the division. I’m like, Tom defended the belt. That’s a defense on his book. Let the division keep moving and now it moves forward.”
Although so far there’s been no word from the UFC on who Tom Aspinall will defend the title against, or when he will do so, considering the promotion already has headliners for the UFC 318 and 319 cards, it sounds like we may not get to see Aspinall defend the title until the fall.
Israel Adesanya Believes Jon Jones Will Return After Taking Care of Alleged Hit-and-Run Incident
Almost immediately after Jon Jones’ retirement, news surfaced indicating that the former pound for pound king had been charged with leaving the scene of an accident back in February.
The way Israel Adesanya sees things, the timing of Jones vacating the title seems almost too coincidental, and because of it, he believes once Jones puts his latest legal troubles behind him, the former champ will return to action.
Of course, by that time, as The Last Stylebender pointed out, Tom Aspinall could potentially have two or three more title defenses on his resume, which would only add to the hype surrounding a Jones-Aspinall fight.
“This whole thing comes out, because it happened in February or whatever, and you’re like… ‘That’s why he retired.’ But I think he’ll go through this and then again he’ll come back. … I think he’ll fight Tom. … It’s too much money. They offered him $20, $30 million, I heard. I think he’ll come back. It’ll even be bigger by the time he comes back.”
Ciryl Gane Teases Fans With Fight News, Fueling Talk of Title Fight
With Jon Jones now out of the picture, Tom Aspinall is eager to get the heavyweight division moving along.
While it remains to be seen when he’ll return to action, it sounds like there has been some movement behind the scenes regarding a fight with Ciryl Gane.
On Wednesday, Gane took to Instagram, cryptically writing:
“Everything is now set in motion.”
Gane, of course, is coming off a controversial split decision win over Alexander Volkov back in December, which made it two in a row for the former title challenger.
While Dana White spoke openly about disagreeing with the decision, Gane is currently ranked No. 1 on UFC.com, and when factoring in his win over No. 2 ranked Volkov, it seems as though he’ll get the first crack at Aspinall’s undisputed title.
The big question now is when the pair will share the Octagon.
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The post Israel Adesanya Drops Bold Prediction following Jon Jones’ Retirement appeared first on Heavy Sports.