UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will be giving a rematch to Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. It seems that his coach, Eugene Bareman seems to think this is because his athlete is feeling particularly generous.
Bareman was working with Adesanya since before the first fight with Vettori. This contest took place back in 2018, where the future champ would win by split decision, after getting taken down and controlled in the third round.
With Izzy now coming off of his first pro loss, after moving to light heavyweight in an attempt to capture a second belt, he is set to rematch Vettori at UFC 263. This time the stakes are higher, as the belt will be on the line in this five round main event.
Eugene Bareman Says Marvin Vettori Gets Pink Panty Night
While Marvin Vettori is coming off 5 straight wins since that setback to Adesanya, none are against the top of the division, yet he is getting a crack at gold. Eugene Bareman seems to think that he knows the reason for that.
Playing off of Conor McGregor’s infamous “red panty night” joke, Eugene said in a recent interview that this was the “pink panty night” for Vettori. In fact, the only reason he is getting this shot, is because the champ was feeling generous.
“Another person, just like Romero, because of the good grace of Israel, gets the pink panty night. There’s two panty nights in the UFC, one is red and that’s Conor’s, the other is pink and that’s Israel. There’s two big paydays in this organization, and its versus one of those two guys. Red panty night or pink panty night,” Bareman said.
“Because of Israel’s good grace, that’s the only reason Marvin is getting a pink panty night.”
That being said, Bareman says that he knows Vettori and his team have worked to improve on his skills. However they have also been making improvements with Adesanya too, so he still feels like the gap between the two has remained the same, if not extended.
“There’s definitely been improvements across the board, and you’d hope so after all the proceeding time between the two fights. But they have to be measured against the improvements that we’ve made,” Bareman explained.
“I believe however many steps we already were ahead of him, I believe we’ve maintained those steps or possibly increased them.”
Eugene Bareman will have the chance to be proven right, when Israel Adesanya faces Marvin Vettori at UFC 263. It is going to be interesting to see how Izzy rebounds after a loss, and the improvements he has been able to make.
