Despite less than three days removed from his title loss to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 on Saturday night, Israel Adesanya is already planning a rematch with the former, as soon as December, with head coach, Eugene Bareman expecting a much different fight this time around.
Adesanya, who headlined UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia, suffered a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Strickland in the pair’s championship clash atop the main card, dropping four out of five rounds on each of the three judge’s scorecards.
Now a former two-time undisputed middleweight champion, City Kickboxing staple, Israel Adesanya remained coy on his lacklustre performance and loss to Strickland following the event ‘Down Under’, however, UFC leader, Dana White insists that despite watching a “slow motion” performance by the former, he wants to see an immediate rematch between Adesanya and Strickland.
Eugene Bareman lays out gameplan for Israel Adesanya’s future after UFC 293 loss
Echoing that sentiment of an immediate return to fight Strickland, Adesanya’s head trainer, Bareman claimed a December or early 2024 turnaround for his student is the most likely option for him next.
“Israel (Adesanya) has to inflict more pain and damage on this man (Sean Strickland),” Bareman told Submission Radio. “And what that’s going to mean is we have to find a way to do it and minimize how much harm we kind of put in front of them. … You’re going to see a real good fight, an intriguing rematch against a great opponent and a great time.”
“Realistically, end of the year, start of next year,” Bareman explained. “I said one week because that was me eluding to, I think the game plan is still there. It still exists. I think that there’s some mental things there that we can quickly adjust in a week and then get back in there, and we could see a completely different fight. Whether Sean’s able to impose those mental blocks that he put on Israel, I don’t know if he’ll be able to do that again.”