"There's just no dates available" - Israel Adesanya's coach explains why they're targeting June return despite wanting 5 title defenses in a year
Eugene Bareman thinks it'll be very difficult for Israel Adesanya to fight five times in 2022. The City Kickboxing coach recently revealed there were no dates available for Adesanya to return to the octagon before June.
In the lead-up to UFC 271, 'The Last Stylebender' revealed that he wasn't pleased with his two fights in 2021. He hopes to be a lot more active this year.
During a recent interview on The MMA Hour, Bareman stated that defending the title five times would require the UFC's full cooperation. Since Adesanya penned his new contract at the last minute, there hasn't been enough time to put those plans in place for 2021. The City Kickboxing head coach said:
"We could go earlier [than June] but we've been informed that there's just no dates available for us. And this is what I mean. To get five is a big ask. To get five, it needs complete cooperation from the UFC. And as you know, this deal just happened at the final hour so we would have to look into that for next year."
Watch Eugene Bareman's appearance on The MMA Hour below::
Eugene Bareman weighs in on Israel Adesanya's performance at UFC 271
Israel Adesanya beat Robert Whittaker convincingly in their first fight to win the middleweight crown. 'The Last Stylebender' was in for a far tougher test in their rematch at UFC 271. He managed to edge out a unanimous decision victory to retain his belt
During his appearance on The MMA Hour, Eugene Bareman revealed that he was happy Adesanya got the job done. However, he felt his star pupil could have won in even more convincing fashion, saying:
"I’m not going to say it was a whitewash because I think Israel could have done better. I thought Israel could have done better. I thought defensively, he was good. He just needed a little bit more offense. Let’s say it was convincing, but not the whitewash we wanted. But we’re walking away from this like, happy with the result and confident that that was the right result."
Jared Cannonier is expected to be next in line for a crack at the middleweight title. At the UFC 271 press conference, Israel Adesanya revealed he would rather fight Cannonier than defend the championship in another rematch. However, the fight hasn't been confirmed as of yet.