UFC president Dana White is open to a Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya super-fight — provided Adesanya gets past a few opponents first.
Jones and Adesanya have gone back-and-forth on social media for much of 2019 and are likely to continue this year as well. It’s led to fans wanting to see the two collide at some stage.
For now, both champions are scheduled to defend their titles in the coming months as Jones defends his light heavyweight belt against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 while Adesanya is set for a first middleweight title defense against Yoel Romero at UFC 248.
But if Adesanya is able to get past Romero as well as a couple of other contenders, White feels only then can there be talk of him facing Jones.
“What I think needs to happen is — and Israel is on track —Â … he beats Romero,” White told Submission Radio. “[Paulo] Costa’s next. If he beats Costa, maybe there is one more guy there that would make sense. … Gets that fight, beats him and then you start talking about Jon Jones if Israel really wants that fight.
“But if you ask me, I think Israel should stay where he’s at. Keep picking these guys off for as long as he can and just build this phenomenal legacy.”
For the most part, Adesanya seems to agree. He has repeatedly stated that he wants to clear out his division and continue to level up as a fighter before moving up and facing Jones.
However, he doesn’t seem too keen on remaining at middleweight forever. He has even predicted a fight with Jones in 2021 to take place at the Raiders Stadium in Las Vegas.
White foresees a stadium fight happening Down Under instead.
“I think what you do with that, you do a stadium [fight] in either New Zealand or Australia,” White added. ” … I’ve been building that market for the last however many years and we’re finally there.”
Of course, all this speculation will be futile if both fighters don’t remain unbeaten in 2020.