Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman says the middleweight champ is currently eyeing a potential September fight with top contender Paulo Costa.
Just last week Joe Rogan broke the news. “Oh, they’re bringing it back by the way,” Rogan announced, speaking on the long running UFC reality show, the Ultimate Fighter. “Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya. Yeah, holy shit. Tell me you’re not gonna watch that.”
Only one problem, fans may never get the chance, since – at least at the moment – it seems Adesanya’s camp doesn’t know anything about a potential TUF coaching gig. That revelation comes via City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman, who recently spoke to Submission Radio about Rogan’s announcement.
“One hundred percent I don’t know anything about it,” Bareman replied when asked about Rogan’s assertion. “No one has ever proposed it to me, I’ve never had any documentation, I’ve never had any electronic documentation saying anything about it at all. Nah, Joe Rogan knows a lot more than me about it, so I don’t know. So, like, you can take that how you want it, but it probably means that Joe Rogan saw some information that’s not good.”
“Look, nothing’s coming over my desk in regards to Paulo Costa and Israel Adesanya fighting. Nothing about that. And I’ve also had nothing in regard to The Ultimate Fighter. For The Ultimate Fighter to happen, a lot more would have to be done. I would have to… really, the decision for me would be, it would be a business decision. Like, how much would that help Israel make money? And if it added greatly to his backend, to his pay-per-view, than that might be worth giving it a go, even though the stories that we’ve heard from the Ultimate Fighter and stuff, is that it’s quite a hard time, it’s not the most enjoyable time. But if it makes dollars, it makes sense, right? These guys gotta scrap for every dollar they can. That’s what I’d base my decision on if it came down to it. But it’s not. It’s not a discussion point at the moment because it needs to come over my desk, and nothing has come over my desk in regard to that.”
And while he didn’t entirely dismiss the possibility, he revealed that the champ is currently targeting a title fight with Costa for September. Well before any potential TUF season would have time to record and air.
“We’re good to go. We’re just waiting on them,” Bareman continued, when asked about when he thought Adesanya vs. Costa would take place. “September. September’s good for us. If the UFC want to put the fight on, then we want it. Yeah, let’s push for September. It would give us enough time to get ready. A lot of the other noise to do with coronavirus and stuff would have calmed down. Let’s do it in September. Send the contract over and we’ll get it done.”
Bareman also gave his thoughts on salaries for Hooker and Poirier following their recent FOTY candidate (they’re too low), and his thoughts on getting Alexander Volkanovski ready for his second fight with Max Holloway. So check the whole interview out.