City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman wants Israel Adesanya to flow in a fight like he used to.
At UFC 287, Adesanya looks to get revenge against Alex Pereira after losing two kickboxing bouts and one MMA fight against his rival. After being unsuccessful three times, ‘The Last Stylebender’ needs to do something different to succeed. During an interview with ESPN’s Megan Anderson, Bareman had this to say about what he wants his fighter to change:
“I’ve asked Israel to look back to his past a little bit and kind of take the shackles of himself, mentally, and find, find some of the things he had in the past. I’m talking about his decision making, his decision making ability, the ability to flow in a fight, things he used to have when he was younger, things used to come a little bit more freely. I’ve asked him to find that.”
Before losing to Pereira at UFC 281, Adesanya was 12-0 in the UFC middleweight division. ‘The Last Stylebender’ was starting to run out of title contenders before Pereira showed up and changed everything. It’ll be intriguing to see if the former middleweight champion takes Bareman’s advice and returns to the free-flowing style that made him one of the best strikers in UFC history.
Watch Eugene Bareman’s interview with Megan Anderson below:
Eugene Bareman wants Israel Adesanya to find a balance between his old and new skills
Eugene Bareman has dedicated his life to evolving the fighters at City Kickboxing. The 43-year-old MMA coach wants Israel Adesanya to succeed and believes the former UFC champion must find a balance between his old and new skills to emerge victorious at UFC 287. Bareman had this to say during the same interview with Megan Anderson:
“I’ve asked him to look at some of his older fights, I’m not gonna say which ones obviously, but yeah, I’ve asked him to look at his older fights and find that fighter again, and amalgamate that with all the new skills he has added. If we can find that balance, we have a pretty good Israel heading into the fight.”
Despite being the current betting favorite, Adesanya has a tough mountain to climb to regain the UFC middleweight championship. He was dominating against Alex Pereira in their first meeting in the Octagon before things changed quickly. ‘The Last Stylebender’ will have to avoid the power of Pereira for 25 minutes at UFC 287 to emerge victorious.
