UFC: Israel Adesanya would snub Jon Jones and give Stipe Miocic a super fight, says coach
- Eugene Bareman thinks ‘a person of Jon’s nature’ doesn’t deserve opportunity to fight ‘Stylebender’
- ‘If we were going to do a super fight we would much rather do it against Stipe, a good dude, a nice guy’
Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones have been going back and forth on social media about a potential super fight down the line. But the UFC middleweight champion’s coach says “Bones” is not worthy of a shot at “Stylebender”.
Eugene Bareman told Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show that they would rather give the honour to heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic than light heavyweight champion Jones.
“I believe me and Israel are in a certain place where we don’t have to give a person of Jon’s nature the opportunity that Israel can bestow upon him,” New Zealand-based City Kick-boxing head coach Bareman said.
“That’s why I suggested, and this isn’t set in stone or anything, but if we were going to do a super fight we would much rather do it against Stipe. A good dude, a nice guy. A stand up guy. Let’s do it against him, let’s not give someone like Jon Jones an opportunity. That’s just how my team operates.”
Jones – who pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge after a New Mexico strip club incident earlier this year, and was given a 90-day deferred sentence by the judge – has challenged Adesanya to fight him whenever, wherever.
