Israel Adesanya: Jon Jones is My Biggest Fan!

When you and him started going after it, you and Jon Jones started going after it on Instagram, I was like, oh no. Let it be known, he started it. Yes. He started it. Why did he start it? I don't know. What do you think it was? I think it's I'm the freshman. I'm the guy that he wishes he was. And he's a fan. Trust me, he's a fan. He's my biggest fan. And I think he sees himself, you know, like, man, I could have been that cool. And if I didn't fuck all this up, and he sees me like the new freshman, getting all the shine, getting all the hype. But he's still the champ. He is. And he's still undefeated, really. No one really cares about his fights. He is. Fuck that man. How much shit was bullshit? Man, Hamill talking shit at him. Talking shit at him. And he was just trying. He was just trying to talk. He was just trying. Yeah. I don't, I mean, Matt Hamill's probably broke. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He hasn't fought in forever. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. He just wanted another. He's undefeated. He's a guy, like, I think when I first watched him fight. Because I was a fan. It was UFC 94, Penn versus GSP 2. And he fought Stephan Varno. And just hit him with some stuff. Hit him with that spinning elbow. Hit him with that double over hook lateral drop. Oh, shit. And I'm just like, who the fuck's this guy? You know? And the comparisons were always going to be there, like with him. And, oh, this is silver with wrestling. And then when I came on the scene, oh, this is Jones with better striking. I'm like, hmm. And I said it from the get go. I will outgrow those comparisons. I was like, they're going to forget about this. So now they're not comparing us. They're saying, ooh, let's watch them fight. I like the fight. I said, this is July. After the, I think it was the MMA Awards, I was in my hotel room. And allegedly, I might have been stoned. But allegedly, I was fucking stoned. And I was looking across, and I could see Rader Stadium being built. And I was like, for whatever reason, just decided that's where it's going to happen. It's such a fucking crazy fight. The way it's going to happen, it's just, boom. Let him go to heavyweight. I'll drag him back down. I'll drag him back down. And I said, like, 2021 is the time. Because I don't want to disrespect the game. I'm not going to hold up the division. The division will be held up long enough by Robert fucking being sick and being injured and Romero not making win and all this shit. I'm like, let me do what Silver did, which was honor the fucking code and actually be a champion and defend the belt. So I'm going to do that. I've done it once against Robert Whitaker, double interim champ. So I'm going to do it again. There's killers out there. I even saw Kananir in the weekend. And he's a fucking beautiful dude, man. He's such a nice guy. He's a very nice guy. I said, what's up, brother? How you doing? He's a killer. Exactly. He's the dark horse. He's the dark horse. Everyone thinks Romero is. Everyone thinks Kostar is the one. Nah. He is the guy I'm like, I'm stalking him. I've been watching him, man. He's another guy that's made a shift. Over the last year and a half or so, Jared's made a shift where he's just become more and more serious, more and more dangerous. And you watch him. When he took out Anderson Silva and he fucked his leg up, you're like, Jesus. He's on a mission. He's on a mission. I see him, man. I'm all slipping. They'll never catch me slipping unless I slip him and then rip him. He's got fantastic genetics, too. And that guy's a tank. See, I saw when he was fighting this guy at heavyweight. He was heavy weight. Yeah, he walked him down with his hands down. Heavy weight. Yeah, he's a guy who wants to stop doing that. That was 185 and shredded. Yeah. It's crazy. It looks good, man. My man snapped back. Those guys that go all the way from heavyweight to 185. That's fucking phenomenal. I think Roy Nelson should have done it, to be honest.