UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has taken a shot at Jon Jones after fresh criticism from his rival.

The last couple of years have seen Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones go in very different directions. While Jones has been on the shelf since early 2020 following his win over Dominick Reyes, Adesanya has been busy defending his UFC middleweight title.

He also made a brief and unsuccessful jump up to light heavyweight but along the way, he’s been able to earn his fair share of admirers - as well as some major critics.

Jones clearly isn’t a big fan of ‘The Last Stylebender’ and the feeling appears to be mutual with both men making it clear that they’d be open to a superfight with one another.

Alas, it doesn’t seem particularly likely with Jones preparing to move up to heavyweight, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still go back and forth in yet another MMA ‘cold war’.

After Jones decided to mock what Adesanya had done to his nails in preparation for his Octagon return on Saturday night, the champ wasn’t in any mood to talk about the 205-pound GOAT during UFC 276’s post-fight press conference.

“F*** Jon Jones, f*** Jon, I don’t want to hear about that bitch,” Adesanya said. “What’s he talking about my nails for? He’s just jealous and insecure, the f*** boy. He could never rock s*** like this, he’s a bitch. F*** him. I couldn’t give a f*** what he thinks. Yeah, next.”

Moving forward

Jon Jones has a potential clash with Stipe Miocic coming up later this year with some believing the interim heavyweight championship will be attached to that bout in preparation for Francis Ngannou’s return from injury.

On the flip side, Israel Adesanya is almost certainly going to collide with former kickboxing foe Alex Pereira after ‘Poatan’ was able to knock Sean Strickland out cold in Las Vegas.

In a dream world we may have been able to see Jones take on Adesanya but the difference in weight between them is too much for the time being. Who knows, maybe if Izzy can finally claim that second world title we could see Jones get the itch to go back down and reclaim what he never lost.