Israel Adesanya may be on the brink of the biggest fight of his career against Robert Whittaker at UFC 243, but all the talk in recent days has centered around one very high-profile future opponent.
And at the UFC's media day before Sunday's gargantuan event, the No.1 topic of discussion was the prospect of 'super fight' between Adesanya and light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
The two have exchanged social-media barbs over the past year, but their simmering beef was reignited by some scathing tweets from Jones last week, after Adesanya took the extra step of specifying the NFL Oakland Raiders' new Allegiant Stadium in 2021 as a location and date.
Jones - arguably the greatest UFC fighter ever - didn’t take kindly to the comments and responded by calling Adesanya "delusional", among a string of other colourful terms.
"Keep convincing yourself that one day you’ll be ready to face a boss like me," Jones tweeted. "I’ll keep convincing myself that when that day comes, I will make you my absolute bitch."
Adesanya dismissed Jones' latest salvo as attention-seeking.
"It's like in high school, when the freshman comes in and starts taking all the shine," Adesanya told Newshub.
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"The seniors are all, like, 'who's this motherf**ker, this skinny black kid'… he was the one doing that in the first place, until he started f**king around and tarnishing his own legacy.
"I don't know if he means it. I don’t care, eventually we'll fight. I've already set the date, I've set the stadium, I've put this all in line."
Adesanya admitted he has both Jones and a higher weight class in his sights, but only after he's had a chance to work his way through the list of top middleweight contenders - namely Paulo 'Juice Monkey' Costa, Jared Cannonier and Yoel Romero.
"You have to clean out your division first and I haven't done that yet. Three or four more at middleweight, and then I'll move up.
"I've fought four times in one year, so I'm going to keep that same schedule, get those guys out of the way and then move up.
"I've set everything in stone - he just has to be patient."
Adesanya refused to call the Jones talk a distraction. He's adamant his eyes are still firmly on the prize and that Whittaker has his undivided attention.
"I only have one fight this weekend. It's you guys bringing this up, I wouldn't even say his name.
"He's a troll, he's just the biggest troll in the f**king world. It's all white noise - I'm focused on my main target which is Whittaker this weekend."
But ever conscious of fight-game machinations, the savvy Adesanya recognises the value in keeping the conversation alive.
"He was a fan - he's still a fan - he loves what I do. I'm sure he's going to watch the fight this weekend and enjoy what I'm doing.
"But now he sees that marketing machine and the money we could make together, and I like that too. I welcome it."
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