We’ve seen it happen time and time again where the tension that exists pre-fight between two competitors is put to bed once they meet inside the Octagon. This was certainly the case in the main event of UFC 305 in August where Israel Adesanya returned to challenge Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title. The […]
We’ve seen it happen time and time again where the tension that exists pre-fight between two competitors is put to bed once they meet inside the Octagon. This was certainly the case in the main event of UFC 305 in August where Israel Adesanya returned to challenge Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title.
The feud dated back over a year and reached boiling point following Du Plessis’ win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 where in his post-fight interview, he was joined in the cage by Adesanya for a heated exchange. Unfortunately, “Stillknocks” wasn’t able to make the quick turn around to fight the champion at UFC 293 but with Adesanya losing the title only for Du Plessis to win it from Sean Strickland at UFC 297, the match-up came back around.
In a recent appearance on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, Adesanya spoke about putting the rivalry with Du Plessis to bed.
“Yeah we’re cool. After the fight, we had a nice discussion, yeah it was cool. Just like a moment and then at the end he said, ‘If you’re ever in South Africa, you know, tap in’ and I was like ‘yeah sure’ and I said when I see you again, I’ll try and kill you and he goes ‘I’ll try and kill you too’ and we just hugged.”
He said that despite the animosity that previously existed between them, it’s normal for fighters to shake hands and put the past behind them after competing against one another.
“That’s how most fighters are, there’s only some who take it to that place and then like keep it like that after the fight but nah, we’re all on the same journey and again, he’s achieved his dream now.”
In his return to the Octagon at UFC 305, there were a lot of positives to take from Israel Adesanya’s middleweight title fight with Dricus Du Plessis even if he was defeated. “The Last Stylebender” failed to capture the 185-pound gold for a third time but it was clear that his time away from the […]
Heading into the championship rounds, the challenger appeared to be in the ascendancy but eventually, in the fourth round, the unwavering persistence of “Stillknocks” paid off and he was able to catch Adesanya, take him down and secure the rear-naked choke. The former champion said in the aftermath of the fight that he was happy with his performance but he made some crucial mistakes that cost him.
“The mistake was just a lapse in focus cuz I tripped, bad footwork, and I tripped and then that was when he was kind of throwing at me and people thought like ‘Oh! You hurt him’ and I got up and I was like (points) the ground.”
He said that though some may have thought he was pointing to the ground to beckon Du Plessis on, he was instead trying to make the point that he had tripped rather than stumbling due to any damage that he had taken. He went on to say that in his previous fights, you never see him lose concentration for a single second.
The one instance that the City Kickboxing fighter referenced where he did take his eyes off his opponent was during his fight with Derek Brunson where he gestured towards the referee because Brunson grabbed his shorts multiple times. Adesanya believes that this one moment swung the fight against Du Plessis in the defending champion’s favor with the finish quickly following it.
“Even that moment right there, I shouldn’t have. Just stay focused on the task at hand cuz you need 30 minutes of focus while you’re in there so you can’t even have just a lapse in judgment for a split second because if not, people can jump on you and capitalize and I’ve done that to people as well but this time, it got done to me.”
Following his fighter’s loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, Israel Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Bareman spoke about the differences in this defeat compared to what happened at UFC 293. The City Kickboxing boss said that there was a lot of…
Following his fighter’s loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, Israel Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Bareman spoke about the differences in this defeat compared to what happened at UFC 293. The City Kickboxing boss said that there was a lot of positives and some lessons that they could take away from Perth. Unlike their […]
Israel Adesanya suffered a defeat on his return at UFC 305 but as always, he was incredibly respectful and humble in defeat. Fight fans have seen “The Last Stylebender” come up short on four occasions during his time in the promotion. Which each loss, he has always continued to represent himself and his team incredibly […]
Israel Adesanya suffered a defeat on his return at UFC 305 but as always, he was incredibly respectful and humble in defeat.
Fight fans have seen “The Last Stylebender” come up short on four occasions during his time in the promotion.
Which each loss, he has always continued to represent himself and his team incredibly well and this is something that his coach takes a lot of pride in.
In fact, the former middleweight champion’s character after a defeat is so strong that his coach prefers this side of him to the celebratory one after a win.
Eugene Bareman Says Israel Adesanya Is Better At Handling Losses Than Anyone Else In MMA
Though City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman would obviously rather that Adesanya wins each and every one of his fights, he does like seeing the man that his fighter is in the difficult moments where he lets his opponent have their moment without stepping in the way.
There was a lot of tension between Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis heading into this fight but any beef was squashed after the two men faced off in Perth.
During a recent appearance on the ‘Who The Fook Are These Guys?’ podcast, Bareman spoke about how great “The Last Stylebender” is after a defeat.
“Yeah he keeps handling it well and you’re right, I love the way he loses. I actually prefer the way he loses than the way he wins. I’m not a big fan of some of the ways he win but I’m definitely a big fan of the way he loses. I think he does it better than anyone in the sport. In a sport that’s proliferated with a bunch of idiots that make up all sorts of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen over the years, especially at that level it’s just crazy, and I think he does it the best but I mean the Strickland loss, he’ll never get over. You just fought badly and it was unexplainable.”
Dan Hooker secured one of his biggest career victories at UFC 305 in Perth when he upset Mateusz Gamrot to earn a top five ranking spot. It was a back-and-forth battle between the two lightweight contenders that ended in a split decision, after Gamrot started the fight well but faded over time. All of the […]
It was a back-and-forth battle between the two lightweight contenders that ended in a split decision, after Gamrot started the fight well but faded over time.
All of the credit went to “The Hangman” who, after suffering some tough defeats, has been able to build his way back into contention at 155 pounds.
His display of heart and toughness pushed this bout towards winning the fight of the night bonus but of course, his Polish opponent also played his part and that’s something that Hooker’s coach wanted to highlight.
Eugene Bareman Praises Mateusz Gamrot And Says He Has Veen Unlucky Because Of His Fighting Style
In an interview with Combat TV, Hooker’s coach at City Kickboxing, Eugene Bareman, took a moment to show his appreciation for Gamrot as a fighter and competitor.
He referenced how “Gamer” was locked in to be the back-up fighter for UFC 294 in case anything happened to the main event between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira.
When “Do Bronx” withdrew due to an injury, the UFC went with Alexander Volkanovski as the replacement instead despite Gamrot being ready to go, likely because it made for a bigger fight.
“For a start, I got a lot of respect for Gamrot and his team. I thought it was very unfair what happened to him in Abu Dhabi, you know, when Volk stepped in when he was already the person that was there waiting to be the replacement and instead of choosing him, they chose Volk who was in no shape to fight.
“I thought that should have been his opportunity and it was taken away by the machine, you know. The machine that is the UFC and I just thought he was a guy that has suffered a little bit because he doesn’t have the stereotypical fights that the fans necessarily want to see but I love watching the guy fight. The people that know about the sport, they appreciate his work and although it may not be a fan friendly kind of style of fight, the people that know really appreciate the way that he fights.”
For the first time in his MMA career, Israel Adesanya finds himself coming off the back of consecutive defeats inside the Octagon. This doesn’t tell the story of both the fights that took place a year apart, because though he didn’t get his hand raised on either occasion, the story of the fights were completely […]
For the first time in his MMA career, Israel Adesanya finds himself coming off the back of consecutive defeats inside the Octagon.
This doesn’t tell the story of both the fights that took place a year apart, because though he didn’t get his hand raised on either occasion, the story of the fights were completely different.
“The Last Stylebender” didn’t look himself at UFC 293 where he was shockingly upset by Sean Strickland before taking a year off to return at UFC 305.
Despite not reclaiming the title against Dricus Du Plessis, Adesanya appeared somewhat back to where he was before and looked to be gaining momentum in the fight until Du Plessis was able to capitalize on a few mistakes to earn a submission win in the fourth round.
Adesanya’s head coach at City Kickboxing, Eugene Bareman, gave his thoughts on the fight during a recent interview with Combat TV.
“He made some mistakes which you can only, in my opinion, put down to fatigue and the fatigue, you can put down to the work that Dricus was able to do so you can’t do nothing but applaud that. It was a loss but you know, it was a good loss. Me and Israel can walk away from that loss and it’s measurable, it’s tangible. You can put that down, this is why this happened, this is why that happened. The Strickland fight is just a bit unexplainable to us. That’s much harder to get over cuz it’s like well what happened there.”
Eugene Bareman Gives Credit To Dricus Du Plessis For An Aspect Of His Game That They ‘Didn’t Anticipate’
Bareman agrees with the common consensus that heading into the fourth round, it looked like the momentum was swinging towards Adesanya in the later rounds.
However, it was Du Plessis’ finishing ability that ended up deciding the fight after he was able to wobble the former champion on the feet and take his back for the rear-naked choke win.
As he previously stated above, Bareman puts these crucial mistakes down to Adesanya being fatigued and while this is something they worked on during his training camp, the City Kickboxing boss revealed that he was surprised by how effectively the champion is able to weaponize his conditioning.
He said that Du Plessis may not be a perfect fighter but he’s always making his opponents work hard to try and capitalize on his weaknesses.
“It looks like he has some holes in his defense, he also makes you work to take advantage of those holes, you know what I mean. It’s tough work out there. Yeah, the holes are there but it’s tough work to find them and it just fatigued Israel and fatigued Israel and fatigued Israel and it slowly, slowly got to Israel to the point where he was so fatigued, Dricus was able to take advantage of it. That was probably something I didn’t anticipate happening as much as it did and I just had an expectation that Israel would be able to push through that.”