Eugene Bareman reveals the exact moment when he and Israel Adesanya realized Robert Whittaker felt the home pressure at UFC 243
Israel Adesanya defeated Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 243 in Melbourne to be crowned the undisputed middleweight king. 'The Last Stylebender' looked dominant throughout and secured a second-round TKO victory over 'The Reaper'.
According to Adesanya's coach, Eugene Bareman, they both sensed the pressure Whittaker was under going into the bout. During a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Bareman said that both he and Adesanya could see the home pressure on Whittaker's face as soon as the then-champ entered the octagon.
"When Robert [Whittaker] entered the cage... And I had watched Robert enter the cage many hundreds of times before that and so had Israel [Adesanya]. And he stepped through the gate, me and Israel looked at each other and I said to Israel, 'You can see it, can't you?' Because we both, we felt, and maybe we're wrong, we felt that we could see the weight of the occasion on his shoulders. So we both acknowledged each other."
Watch Eugene Bareman's interview on Submission Radio below:
Israel Adesanya thinks Robert Whittaker has not improved as much as people believe
Since his title loss to Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker has racked up three consecutive decision wins against Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. His last outing against Gastelum was also awarded the Fight of the Night honor.
Many people believe we will see a new version of 'Bobby Knuckles' when he meets Adesanya at UFC 271. The UFC middleweight champion, however, disagrees.
According to 'Izzy', Whittaker has received more credit than he deserves for his latest winning streak. While Adesanya acknowledged Whittaker's improvement, he believes people have blown it up a degree. Adesanya said on his YouTube channel:
"Did he invent a new move or something? Did he reinvent the jab or I don’t know what. He improved, yes, but not to the point where people have blown it up to be. The proportion. I think maybe people just have low standards, that’s all. I just have high standards... He played the game very well against all three opponents, I feel. At the same time, you put those three guys together, they don’t amount to me. The way they play the game, it’s not the same. So like I said, [Georges St-Pierre impression] ‘I was not impressed by your performance.’”
Watch Israel Adesanya weigh in on Robert Whittaker below: