Jon Jones believes Alex Pereira should be keeping his sparring footage close to his chest as he prepares to face Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title in November.
The Brazilian has already knocked out Adesanya during their days as kickboxers, but will be handed the underdog tag in the MMA world where his rival can use a wider range of attacks. Adesanya has never been beaten at middleweight in MMA, although he will be harbouring memories of that brutal defeat last time out.
Jones, who himself is preparing for a return to action this year, has a long-standing feud with Adesanya and is seemingly rooting for Pereira to repeat the feat from their kick-boxing days in the octagon. The fight is a trilogy of sorts given that they fought twice prior, with Pereira winning both, however the UFC aren't marketing it as such.
“Be careful not to show Izzy too much champ," Jones wrote in a seemingly unsolicited Instagram comment on a picture showing Pereira towering over light-heavyweight contender Dominick Reyes. "I honestly don’t think it will matter though. It’s yours.” When the Brazilian shared a video of him shooting for a takedown, Jones responded that he is “loving that shot”.
Pereira was a late starter in the MMA world, and has a relatively unimpressive looking 6-1 record heading into a huge world title opportunity. But he stunned fans with his brutal knockout win over Sean Strickland back at UFC 276 in July, with Adesanya watching on from the back as he prepared for his own title defence against Jared Cannonier.
Jones is currently preparing to finally move up to heavyweight, where he is expected to face Stipe Miocic in December at UFC 282 in Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena. He has been bulking up over the past few years after handing over his light-heavyweight title in order to make the switch up.
Who do you think wins at UFC 281; Israel Adesanya or Alex Pereira? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
There had, at one stage, been talks that Adesanya would move up to light-heavyweight to challenge Jones in what would have been a UFC super-fight. However, when Jones vacated his belt that idea fell to the wayside and Adesanya continued at middleweight.
The Nigerian did make one foray up to 205lb, attempting to wrestle the title from Jan Blachowicz last year in an unsuccessful attempt to become the promotion's latest double champion. Jones mocked Adesanya after he was relatively comfortably beaten by the Polish fighter, who lost his next defence to veteran Glover Texeira.
“I can’t wait to make this b**** eat his own words," Jones tweeted after Adesanya’s sole UFC loss. "Yeah, never mind. That’s not even worth my time.” In response, Adesanya told ESPN: “that shows his character. Find a tweet of me tweeting and kicking him when everyone is sh***ing on him."
