Alexander Volkanovski gives insight into Israel Adesanya's training for Alex Pereira - "There is that little bit of a more fire there"
Alexander Volkanovski recently weighed in on his teammate Israel Adesanya's preparations for his upcoming title defense against Alex Pereira. According to 'The Great', Adesanya has always been hungry and put in the needed work for all his fights.
However, Volkanovski claims that there is "more fire" in 'The Last Stylebender' going into his clash against Pereira, who has beaten him twice in kickboxing. The UFC featherweight champion told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports:
"I haven't seen, but I've been talking to the boys. He's always one. But I mean he's on. I think there's definitely some fire there. He's very excited for this one, which is obviously giving him this whole new hunger. I think the hunger's always there, the work was always put in there but now it's not just doing the work. You know, it's 'While I'm doing the work, making sure I perform, making sure I'm sticking to my guns.' There is that little bit of a more fire there."
Watch Alexander Volkanovski's comments at the 13:00-minute mark of the video below:
Volkanovski also stated that he hasn't seen Israel Adesanya's preparations in person. While Adesanya is Volkanovski's teammate at City Kickboxing (CKB) in New Zealand, 'The Great' has recently been working out at Freestyle MMA in Australia, where he hails from.
Israel Adesanya's coach admits to taking inspiration from other teams
City Kickboxing staple Israel Adesanya trains under the tutelage of head coach Eugene Bareman. Based out of Auckland, New Zealand, the gym has attracted a lot of attention for all the right reasons in recent years.
Besides Adesanya, the gym is also home to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who now also sits atop the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. Another CKB fighter who could potentially be a title challenger in the future is flyweight contender Kai Kara-France.
Bareman recently admitted that he has "plagiarized" from other coaches when it comes to technique and strategy. The CKB head coach told Combat TV:
"You know when it comes to choosing a strategy, and different tactics, there's no right or wrong. There's just if it works, yeah? Ultimately that's the decider. We have the way that we approach things, and other teams have the way that they approach things. And man, I'm a big fan of studying what other teams do, and what other coaches do. And for sure, a lot of what we do is 100% plagiarized from other teams and other coaches."
Watch Bareman's interview with Combat TV below: