Robert Whittaker is one fight away from challenging for the middleweight crown again and Adesanya’s head coach, Eugene Bareman isn’t convinced by the UFC’s potential match making.
The former UFC middleweight champion lost his title to Israel Adesanya (24-2 MMA) by knockout at UFC 243 back in 2019.
Despite the loss, Whittaker went back to the drawing board and earned his rematch after beating the likes of Darren Till, Jared Cannonier and Kevin Gastelum.
‘The Reaper’ looked significantly better in the pairs rematch, however, Adesanya still prevailed once again this time via a unanimous decision at UFC 271.
Although some fans believed Robert Whittaker had done enough to win the rematch, the reality was that the Aussie had lost to ‘The Last Stylebender’ twice. Due to the circumstances, it was hard to picture Whittaker’s path back to middleweight gold.
Regardless of circumstances, the 32-year-old seemed unfazed, returning to winning ways against middleweight contender Marvin Vettroi by unanimous decision on Sep. 3, 2022.
While it seemed Whittaker would a tough road in order to earn a trilogy fight against Adesanya, UFC President has offered him a number one contender fight against rising prospect Dricus Du Plessis (19-2 MMA) at UFC 290 on July 8th.
Even though, the South African is ranked sixth in the middleweight division and is on a seven-fight win streak, City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman isn’t a fan of fight questioning whether Whittaker is ready for another title shot yet.
Eugene Bareman questions whether Robert Whittaker deserves a trilogy fight with Israel Adesanya
In a recent interview with Sky Sport NZ Eugene Bareman have his thoughts on the recent news of Whittaker and Du Plessis set to battle it out in a title eliminator at UFC 290.
He expressed his feelings on why he doesn’t believe Robert Whittaker is suited for third fight with the middleweight champion. Bareman further stressed that Whittaker has only fought once since their second meeting, while Adesanya has remained active enduring three fights In the same time.
“…We’ve fought him, and he’s basically been in the ring one time since then. Whereas we’ve just been tracking on, so, like, I don’t know,” said Bareman.
“We are who we are. Just put the opponent in front of us, and then we’ll fight. I mean, our preference is not to fight Robert again because we’ve obviously already beaten Robert twice, and he hasn’t really done anything since that loss to warrant him fighting again, so our preference would be the South African, but then the South African has to cross the line, and obviously, he has a very tough opponent.”
With Bareman also revealing that Adesanya will be competing at UFC 293 in Australia, what is left is to find out who the champion will face.