Israel Adesanya (photo via UFC / YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones exchanged warnings prior to UFC 236, and “The Last Style Bender” has fired off verbal shots at “Bones” once again.

Recently Adesanya let it be known that Jones is in his sights, and the light-heavyweight champ responded to the comments with a fiery tweet. Following Adesanya’s win over Kelvin Gastelum on Saturday, the new interim middleweight champ had this to say about his exchanges with Jones (quotes via MMA  Junkie):

“Jon Jones, he literally just reminds me of what I’ve hated most in life, and that’s bullies,” Adesanya said on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show”. “I’ve had them through high school, coming up. Literally he’s a jock, he’s a cock, and he’s a (expletive). He’s picking the right time. He’s a smart boy. He knows I’m a challenge. Jon Jones likes to look for challenges because there’s a reason. He’s started all this. He’s the one that came out openly (after UFC 234 in February) and called me out and said, ‘I’d like to fight Israel Adesanya.’

“He knows I’m a threat. But guess what, I’ve said this for so long: If you want to beat me, do it yesterday. Every (expletive) fight I get better. I get better every fight. So if he wants to try to take me out early on when he knows I’m only a year in the UFC, and I’m still learning.”

Jones, meanwhile, is scheduled to fight Thiago Santos at UFC 239, July 6th.