Israel Adesanya expects Jon Jones to make it look simple towards Stipe Miocic.
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) makes his first heavyweight title protection towards Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX, ESPN+) important occasion at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
Jones’ heavyweight debut was spectacular. He wanted simply over two minutes to submit Ciryl Gane and declare the vacant title at UFC 285. Adesanya admits he didn’t anticipate Jones to run by way of Gane like that.
“Jon Jones these days appears to be like higher at heavyweight already,” Adesanya mentioned on his YouTube channel. “He has been taking it critically, and the best way he fights, the Ciryl Gane struggle was the one which made me go, ‘He’s one of the best,’ as a result of I assumed Ciryl Gane was going to provide him some hassle.
“Ciryl was the new-age heavyweight, and Jon’s like, ‘Maintain my beer.’ He simply sneakily, none of us knew, even ‘DC’ was like, ‘What did he catch him with?’ It was a sneaky entrance choke. The man is simply artful, inventive at what he does.”
Miocic is a former two-time UFC heavyweight champion, however hasn’t competed since dropping his belt to Francis Ngannou by knockout in March 2021. Regardless of being excessive on Miocic’s skill, Adesanya thinks Jones will probably be an excessive amount of for him.
“Stipe is hard,” Adesanya continued. “He can outwork a number of heavyweights, we’ve seen what he’s performed previously. We’ve seen his reign as a heavyweight, he’s knocked folks out, submitted folks. However this struggle, I feel he’s up towards it. I’m going to select Jon Jones. First two rounds, he’s going to complete him.”
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 309.
Remember to go to the MMA Junkie Instagram web page and YouTube channel to debate this and extra content material with followers of combined martial arts.