Eugene Bareman reveals how he reacted when Brian Ortega nearly choked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 266
City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman says he witnessed one of the most intense moments of his career during the UFC 266 main event between Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega.
UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski stunningly escaped a guillotine and triangle choke applied by Ortega in round three at last Saturday's pay-per-view. Bareman claimed that Volkanovski and jiu-jitsu coach Craig Jones had worked out methods to escape tricky submissions ahead of the Ortega encounter.
During a chat with journalist Christopher Reive on the It's Time for Sports YouTube channel, Bareman explained the battle between the two top featherweights from the perspective of a cornerman.
"Craig Jones was about to have the shortest tenure a coach has ever had. Jokes aside, everything he went through with Volk worked superbly. We laughed about it after. 20 minutes before the fight I saw Craig and Volk defending the exact same submissions, just going through the motions. They had been doing that the whole week. Although you don't want to see him in that position, it was good seeing Alex come through it using those techniques."
Eugene Bareman also stressed how nervy Volkanovski's corner was when 'T-City' locked in a mounted guillotine during the main event clash.
"Yes, there was a bit of technique. But sometimes you need a bit of will to get out of submissions. It definitely was a hairy moment in terms of my time in the corner. When it initially happened, I didn't panic. When the legs started shaking like that, I knew Volk was really struggling for space. That was when I thought to myself that Volk was actually in something that's threatening him properly. Then me and Craig proceeded to lose our voice as Volk got out of it. It was a good test that Volk came through."
Watch Eugene Bareman's comments on the UFC 266 main event below:
What's next for UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski?
Alexander Volkanovski's win against Ortega improved his overall MMA record to 23-1, which includes an active 20-fight winning streak.
So what's next for 'The Great' Aussie? Alexander Volkanovski is likely to face the winner of November's Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez bout sometime in the first half of 2022.
However, a recent challenge from former flyweight and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo could also prove to be a viable option.
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