Had UFC Abu Dhabi headliner Robert Whittaker beaten Israel Adesanya in 2019, he might have gotten the chance to prove his ambitious remarks about fighting Jon Jones correct.
Whittaker occupied the middleweight throne at the start of 2019, having won all eight of his fights in the division since moving up from welterweight five years before.
After Whittaker beat Yoel Romero to become interim champion and was later elevated to undisputed king when Georges St-Pierre vacated the throne, ‘The Reaper’ hoped to continue his charge toward greatness.
At 185 pounds, the next step was a unification fight against Adesanya. Beyond that, though, the Australian had eyes on another piece of UFC gold.
With a return to 170 pounds not on the cards, that meant a potential clash with Jones. And when it came to challenging the GOAT contender, Whittaker told fans not to rule him out.
Robert Whittaker had ambitions of giving Jon Jones a ‘run for his money’ after beating Israel Adesanya
Appearing on Submission Radio in April 2019, a couple of months after Robert Whittaker suffered a freak injury that ruled him out of a planned title defense with Kelvin Gastelum, the fan favorite looked ahead to his future.
After expressing his goal of successfully unifying the title against Adesanya, who beat Gastelum to win the interim belt, ‘Bobby Knuckles’ gave the green light for a potential battle with the champ in the division above.
Despite Jones’ greatness inside the Octagon, Whittaker insisted he could “surprise” many in the MMA community with his performance against the Rochester native.
“I’m gonna fight Adesanya, then I’ll be a little free myself,” Whittaker said. “I’ll definitely move up, not down. But if he’s (Jones) looking for opponents, that’s a fight, that’s a great fight.
“I think I could just give him a run for his money. I surprise a lot of people and I’m full of tricks, and I think the intensity I bring into a fight is something that a lot of people aren’t prepared for.
“But he’s a great fighter, he’s super, super dangerous,” Whittaker continued. “I’m under no illusion how hard it would be, and yeah, I think it would be fun.”
Dana White liked the idea of Jon Jones fighting Robert Whittaker’s rival
Things didn’t go Whittaker’s way against Adesanya at UFC 243, and talk of a pursuit of champ-champ status switched to ‘The Last Stylebender’.
UFC president Dana White has often been hesitant to discuss certain titleholders departing their division to challenge elsewhere, but he gave his seal of approval to talk of Adesanya battling Jones even before he unseated ‘The Reaper’.
“Those guys have been talking smack back and forth,” White told Sky Sports. “If Israel wins, and he really does want to fight Jon Jones, that’s a really big fight.
“Israel Adesanya, obviously has been huge. He’s a good-looking kid, he speaks well, and his fighting style is unbelievable.
“He’s got great kicks, knees, punches, elbows, and he’s worked on his wrestling. If he can stop you from taking him down, (and) if he gets taken down, he pops right back up.”
Jones had vacated the light heavyweight title by the time Adesanya ultimately moved up. The Nigerian-New Zealander instead fell short of the crown at 205 pounds against Jan Blachowicz in 2021.