Israel Adesanya just spoke well about Jon Jones even after their rift! The former UFC middleweight champion has found himself in unfamiliar territory after experiencing consecutive losses against Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. However, his spirit has not diminished in the slightest, so much so that he even complimented his past rival Jones.  The 35-year-old appears to be eager for a swift return and expressed his desire to fight again while speaking on the Adam Carolla Show. Along with this he also spoke about his past feud with Jon Jones and Adesanya said some pretty interesting things so let’s check it out!

Let’s walk down memory lane and refresh our minds about when their beef started.  According to ‘The Last Stylebender’, the beef with ‘Bones’ had started around the same time when he fought Paulo Costa in 2020. He admitted that he was surprised at first because they were competing in different weight classes. On top of that, he was also a huge fan of Jones ever since he saw Jones fight at UFC 94. However, the heavyweight star had mentioned that he would like to fight at Adesanya and thus started the beef.

Over the years the feud went on mostly on social media and now it seems to have found its conclusion. During the Adam Carolla Show, Adesanya mentioned how the feud subsided through ‘divine intervention’ when they met in Las Vegas. He said, “I find him enigmatic and that I don’t know who he is. I can’t tell if he is sometimes, he does nice things, and sometimes he gets in trouble. He called me out. We talked about it was funny it was uh in Vegas randomly he was just next to me at a bar. It was almost like divine intervention and we were just like ‘yo what the fu**’ dabbed up, hugged, and then we just sat down and chopped it up.”

The middleweight star mentioned that Jones wanted to fight Anderson Silva but then the fight fell through. That is when the legend thought that he would fight the next best combatant and it was Adesanya in his opinion. Before UFC 290 ‘The Last Stylebender’ posted videos of him and Jones happily hanging out together and even having a playful sparring session with one another. This came as a surprise to fans after they had seen years of trash talk between them. However, the middleweight star cleared things up and said that any rivalry was over between the two.

He described their meeting by chance in the hotel lobby and recounted the whole story on his YouTube channel as well. According to the fighter, he was tired from training in the gym but decided to take a look at the casino of the hotel. He also went to the bar and that is where the encounter took place. He said, “I’m standing there looking at my phone, and then I hear, ‘No way,’ and you just think it’s some fan or whatever, and turned around and it was like, ‘Oh, s***, what the f***?’ And instantly, we just dapped up. The energy was just… if you were around, you witnessed history because the energy was just palpable.”

So all in all the vendetta is over and the combatants seem to have a good relationship going on right now. Their bond is so strong that Jones even supported Adesanya’s long hiatus after the latter lost to Sean Strickland. Jones who also took a hiatus from the sport for a while had expressed his understanding saying, “Always put YOU first.” Adesanya truly has had a mental hurricane since losing two of his fights and he said the same in his documentary as well.

Israel Adesanya opens up about his mental health

Israel “Stylebender” Adesanya—a fighter who has tasted the highest of highs and, recently, the bitter taste of defeat. With his third loss in the last four fights, the latest being a fifth-round submission to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, Adesanya finds himself off the top 15 UFC list for the first time since 2019. But if you think this setback has shattered his spirit, think again. He’s still hungry, still aiming to fight his way back. Yet, beneath the bravado, even “Stylebender” is feeling the weight of being human.

While some might meditate or seek therapy, Adesanya’s healing takes a different path—it’s in the fight itself. Sharing a clip from his documentary on X, Adesanya opened up: “I got to say getting my power back or finding my strength.” For Izzy, there’s nothing quite like the octagon for that feeling of empowerment. “Which is what martial arts is good for. But the thing is, it’s like… you know, it’s better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war. Be an animal, be a savage, but learn to control it.” These words remind us that, for Adesanya, fighting is more than sport—it’s a way to reclaim his essence, to find himself again.

And he knows the fight isn’t just physical—it’s mental. Adesanya made sure to emphasize the importance of mental health, urging his fans to protect their own well-being. Even though he’s faced setbacks, the former champion is far from done. He’s looking to rise again, to earn his place back among the best.

The question now is, will “Stylebender” find his way back to the top? Does he have one more rise left in him? What do you think—is Adesanya ready for another comeback, or has the warrior met his match?