Henry Cejudo feels former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones would end Israel Adesanya‘s life if he had the chance to do so.
Cejudo and Jones are now teammates at Fight Ready in Arizona after Jones left Jackson-Wink following his latest legal troubles. He continues to work his way back to the Octagon after nearly three years away from competition.
Ahead of his highly anticipated heavyweight debut, Jones has teased a fight with Adesanya on countless occasions. The two sides have gone back and forth in various interviews and social media threads over the years.
While the banter between Jones and Adesanya has been mostly playful, Cejudo feels a personal reference that Adesanya made could end up being his downfall.
Henry Cejudo Details Real Animosity Between Jon Jones & Israel Adesanya
During a recent segment on his YouTube channel, Cejudo gave his thoughts on how a Jones vs. Adesanya fight might play out.
“Jones would kill Israel,” Cejudo said of the Jones/Adesanya beef. “It’s like, Jones would absolutely kill him, dude. If you were to let Jones literally kill him, Jones would kill him. That’s how much he doesn’t like him.
“But it’s understood, though, too, man. The reason why I kinda started not becoming a fan of Israel is just because of the simple fact that he talked about (Jones’) mom, who is deceased, you know what I’m saying? Like, to me, that was like a dealbreaker…that’s the stuff that really kinda threw me off with Israel. I was cool with him before, but once I saw that, I’m just like, man, this dude’s — they’re willing to do whatever, man. That’s just not cool, man. There is limits to that stuff, and you just don’t do that.”
The reference to Jones’ late mother that Cejudo is alluding to came in late 2020 when the two brought their respective families into the trash talk. Jones’ mother passed away following a long battle with diabetes in 2017 at the age of 55.
Adesanya remains intrigued at a future matchup down the line with Jones, although it’s uncertain if the fight would take place at light heavyweight or heavyweight. Regardless, the two UFC stars seem to have animosity that could rival some of the most heated pairings in the history of the sport.
This story originally appeared on MMANews.com. Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.