Israel Adesanya feels Jon Jones is past his prime despite record-setting win at UFC 247

Jon Jones pulled off a close victory over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 on Sunday. While the bout seemed to be an extremely close one, Dominick Reyes’ dominant showing in the first three rounds of the fight had many fans and pundits argue that the challenger could have rightly been awarded the win. Reyes also seemed visibly gutted by the decision.

Just like most MMA experts, Jones’ rival Israel Adesanya did not seem quite impressed by his performance. The controversial win has, in fact, reinforced his view that Jon Jones, who has reigned over the light heavyweight division since 2011, is now past his prime.

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Israel Adesanya wanted Jon Jones to convincingly win the title by turning it up a bit more

In a conversation with Sporting News on Monday, Israel Adesanya stated that he has watched the fight and saw what he needed to see. He added that while Jones tried to turn it up in the fifth round of the fight, he simply couldn’t. Adesanya further added that one should compare Jones’ fifth-round bout against Reyes to Adesanya’s fifth-round bout against Kelvin Gastelum and see the difference. Adesanya was referring to his classic battle against Gastelum at UFC 236 in a bout, which saw him pick up pace during the end of the final round before dropping Gastelum on a number of occasions.

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Israel Adesanya was recently in Houston as part of a media tour last week and is gearing up to defend his UFC middleweight strap against Yoel Romero at UFC 248 next month. Adesanya has been linked to a bout with Jon Jones for a long time now. The 'Last Stylebender' also took to his Twitter handle after the UFC 247 main event to take in all the ensuing drama. He first tweeted ‘LOL’, followed by another post of a popcorn gif to take a brutal dig at the champion and his controversial decision victory.

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Image credits: Instagram | Jon Jones & Israel Adesanya