Israel Adesanya revisits Jon Jones encounter – “It was divine intervention”

Israel Adesanya believes a higher power made his recent chance encounter with Jon Jones possible. 

It’s no secret that there was no love lost between ‘The Last Stylebender’ and ‘Bones.’ The two eminent champions have a history of bad-mouthing each other, exchanging brutal verbal shots on social media that often involved personal insults. Despite their weight-class difference, Adesanya and Jones even contemplated fighting each other in the octagon. However, their rivalry seems to have thawed over the past few months. 

After unexpectedly showing each other respect in interviews and podcast appearances, Israel Adesanya shocked the world by posting a video of himself and Jon Jones hanging out like old friends at a famous casino in Las Vegas. While many thought their meeting was a publicity stunt, the Nigerian-born Kiwi insists that it wasn’t. 

In a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Israel Adesanya described his meeting with Jones and credited the supernatural for making it happen. He said:

“I said it’s no one’s business. When I posted about it, I was like, it’s between me and him. That’s it. But it definitely wasn’t a fake encounter. I think it was divine intervention. I honestly do because I feel like there are so many timelines that could have ended up just differently… We just sat down and chopped it up.” 

Upon being asked if the hatchet had been buried, Adesanya replied:

“Yeah. We have understanding and common ground.” 

Catch Adesanya’s comments here (10:37):

Israel Adesanya addresses his emotionally-charged face-off with Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290 

Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis shared an intense face-off after the South African’s shocking win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290. The Nigerian-born Kiwi sounded off on Du Plessis in a racially charged rant, calling ‘Stillknocks’ the N-word multiple times while getting in his face. 

For context, Du Plessis irked the UFC’s ‘Three African Kings’ with his libelous comments about their African roots and heritage. The South African claimed that Kamaru Usman, Francis Ngannou, and Israel Adesanya left the African continent for plushy lives in developed countries and that he was a more “authentic” African than them. 

As a result, Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis exchanged heated words on social media building up to their recent face-off. In the same video mentioned above, Adesanya discussed his language during their confrontation and said:

“He worked hard. I manifest for myself, and I make sure I do the work to get that manifestation right… Even at the prep time, I was giving him energy, like positive affirmations. When it happened, I just lost my sh*t… I could feel myself turning.” [4:05-7:00]

Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis are expected to fight in a middleweight title bout at UFC 293 in Sydney on September 10.