Coach Eugene Bareman draws a parallel between Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya's attempts at double championship
Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski were both unsuccessful in their attempts at becoming double champs, losing to Jan Blachowicz and Islam Makhachev, respectively. City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman weighed in on their losses while speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, stating:
"There's weight divisions for a reason. You're never going to be able to get around that fact so you are always going to be fighting a bigger, stronger man. When you go up in weight division, it really comes down to have you got enough skill to offset the strength and weight advantage. That's what it's about and it was the same thing with Israel and it was the same thing with Volk."
Bareman added:
"Both those guys probably suffered from the same fate in terms of they just weren't quite skilled enough to offset the size advantage if you look at how both those fights panned out. That's just how it is sometimes."
Bareman also stated that while Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski can stay in their division and dominate, they are not satisfied with that and prefer a challenge. Both fighters were defeated by unanimous decision in their attempt to become double champs as their opponents largely utilized their wrestling to take advantage of the size difference.
Watch Eugene Bareman's full comments below (starting at the 4:52 mark):
Eugene Bareman weighs in on Israel Adesanya's rematch with Alex Pereira
Israel Adesanya will look to reclaim the middleweight title as he faces Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in a rematch of their UFC 281 bout. City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman shared that he would have preferred if the No.1-ranked middleweight had more time between fights.
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In this game, we don’t keep score…we settle them. #insertcointocontinue #UFC287 #wegoagain 😤 https://t.co/eyDrE3gdht
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Bareman stated:
"If I had a choice, which I quite often don't, then I would probably have waited longer and prepared - just to give Israel a little more time between a stoppage like that and the next fight. In an ideal world, I would have done what they do in boxing. I would've brought in a couple guys for Israel to warm up on and then fight Pereira, but in the UFC we don't have that choice."
Bareman added that Israel Adesanya was adamant that he was Alex Pereira's next opponent while adding that the two fighters nearly fought at the end of 2022. He shared that if things were up to him, the fight would take place in May or June rather than in April.
Watch Eugene Bareman's full comments below (starting at the 2:39:10 mark):