- Israel Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman opened up about their UFC 293 title fight loss to Sean Strickland
- Bareman thinks it should be a no brainer that Izzy gets an instant rematch which he sees happening possibly before the year ends
Israel Adesanya’s longtime coach Eugene Bareman remains optimistic that a rematch with Sean Strickland will happen sooner rather than later. However, he also admitted that “Tarzan” was able to affect Izzy’s performance at UFC 293 and it is something they need to fix right away.
It’s gonna be a process
Speaking to Submission Radio, Bareman weighed in on his pupil’s upset defeat and confided that Adesanya did not perform the way he was expected to. While Bareman and his fellow coaches know that the problem was about Izzy’s implementation, he also acknowledged the fact that Strickland got the better of Adesanya that night.
“He knows that capability-wise that was a fight that he could’ve won and should’ve won and he didn’t perform. Respect like, when I say, when someone says, when a coach says or anybody who knows the sport says that he had an off night or he didn’t perform, that doesn’t mean, that’s not an excuse, they’re acknowledging that the other person made them not perform,” Bareman explained.
“Me and my coaches were so thorough and we think the things that we’ve seen are still there we just couldn’t get Israel to see the same thing so we have to address that. Sean’s holes are still there, this will still be there, I feel it was more the execution of the strategy and we’re going to look at why Israel wasn’t able to execute and why are we weren’t able to make some of the subtle changes,” he added.
“We need to look at the whole overall picture but we also need to go to another level in the rematch which is such a difficult thing.”
Izzy deserves it without a doubt
Prior to losing his belt to Strickland, Adesanya was widely regarded as one of the biggest draws of the UFC. Bareman thinks the title fight loss to “Tarzan” did not affect Izzy’s legacy and star quality which only makes it proper that he gets an instant rematch.
“This is the biggest star in the sport right now,” Bareman said of Adesanya. “…When you’re this big in the sport what argument is there? If anybody has an argument, put their fighter for it… if their fighter does as much for the company as Israel and makes as much money for the company as Israel does, put your argument forward but the fact is that you know Israel has been a long-serving member for the sport, for this company. He makes this company a lot of money and he’s gone out of his way for the company, so he deserves the rematch.”
Before end of year or early next year
UFC president Dana White already approved the immediate rematch but according to Bareman, the realistic timeline for it would be either before the current year ends or early next year.
“Realistically, end of the year [or] starting next year. I think the game plan’s still there, it still exists. I think that there’s some mental things there that we can quickly adjust on a week and then get back in there and we could see a completely different fight. Sean’s able to impose those mental blocks that he put on Israel, I don’t know if he’ll be able to do that again so that’s all I was alluding to,” Bareman revealed.
Strickland said that he was a bit shocked by how easy it was to beat Adesanya. However, with Bareman vowing to bounce back stronger, things could possibly play out differently in the potential rematch.
