Israel Adesanya ‘Felt Bad’ for Jon Jones After Latest Arrest

Israel Adesanya may have a budding feud with Jon Jones, but the UFC middleweight champion still didn’t necessarily revel in his rival’s latest transgression.

Jones was arrested on March 26 and charged with aggravated DWI, negligent use of a firearm, possession of an open container of alcohol and operating a vehicle without insurance. The New Mexico resident reached a plea deal with prosecutors and received four days house arrest and one year of probation.

Adesanya’s reaction was similar to that of Daniel Cormier, another rival of Jones. “He’s a young black man at the top of his game and he’s throwing it all away,” Adesanya recently told ESPN. “A lot of what DC said…same thing. Like, I felt bad for him when I watched the body cam footage as well. At the end, when he was just sobbing, I felt bad for him. I shouldn’t even say this, it’s just being honest. Because I can imagine myself in that position. And I even bet you in the back of the squad car, he’s thinking, ‘F—k, Israel’s gonna have a lot of material with this one.’

“I bet you that went through his mind. I swear to God. But, like I said, a lot of it’s never going to see the light of day because it’s funny for me but at the same time I feel sad to see a young, black, skinny s—t who wishes he had the career at the beginning like I am right now, and he’s just throwing it all away. So I’ve taken lessons from watching a guy like him pave the way, if you will, and I won’t repeat the same mistakes.”

Adesanya, who recently delivered a message urging people to stay strong during the coronavirus pandemic, expects that Jones could be in store for some rough days inside his home.

“Put it this way, I wouldn’t want to be in a house with him right now,” Adesanya said. “That’s just all I’ll say. . . I said it in one of my posts about quarantine, like staying strong because a lot of people spend time with their families and realize they don’t like them, and a lot of people fix their relationship with their spouses, with their fathers, with their mothers, whatever, and I just feel like something like that happen in my household would just dampen the whole atmosphere. It just sucks. It sucks to be him.”