Watch: Jones and Adesanya brush aside beef, share laugh in Las Vegas
Warning: Video contains coarse language
Let's be real: Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya sharing a laugh on camera wasn't on anyone's 2023 MMA bingo card.
But that's exactly what happened.
The two UFC champions ran into each other on Wednesday in Las Vegas, and Adesanya documented the encounter Thursday on the new social media platform Threads:
🚨JUST IN🚨
— Chisanga Malata (@Chisanga_Malata) July 6, 2023
Israel Adesanya meets and chills with Jon Jones 🤯
Izzy: “It’s all love, baby.”
Jones: “Bless this 🤴🏾let’s go.”
File this under things you never thought you’d see. #UFC pic.twitter.com/RANjfPxYLn
Jones, the UFC heavyweight champion, and Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, were once considered rivals. They went back and forth in the media throughout 2020 and 2021. And at one point, Jones-Adesanya was one of the biggest fights the UFC could book.
The matchup never materialized as the two superstars went in opposite directions. Adesanya focused on the middleweight division after coming up short in a light heavyweight title bout against Jan Blachowicz, and Jones moved up to heavyweight.
Jones praised Adesanya in a June interview with The Sporting News' Tom Naghten, calling him his favorite UFC fighter and "the most entertaining guy in the organization right now."
Jones wrote Thursday on Instagram that it was "a real pleasure kicking it" with Adesanya.
Jones captured the vacant heavyweight belt by submitting Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March, while Adesanya began his second stint as middleweight king at UFC 287 in April by knocking out Alex Pereira.