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Eugene Bareman has weighed in on his star pupil Israel Adesanya’s performance at UFC 271.
Adesanya successfully defended his UFC middleweight title via unanimous decision in a rematch against Robert Whittaker at Saturday’s UFC 271 event.
The duo's first fight transpired in 2019 and witnessed Adesanya secure a second-round KO win over Whittaker. However, 'The Last Stylebender' was given a much tougher fight by Whittaker this time around.
When asked whether he was happy with Adesanya’s UFC 271 performance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Bareman said:
"Oh, I was happy. I was happy with his performance. I’m not gonna say that was like one of his more outstanding performances. But I’m gonna say that he got the job done. He got the job done convincingly. And so, I’m happy with that."
Bareman explained that Whittaker fought the way he'd expected in the rematch. 'The Reaper' adopted a more patient approach on the feet rather than the all-out aggressive strategy he used in 2019.
The CKB (City Kickboxing) head coach said he knew Whittaker would utilize sprints of aggression mixed in with patient lulls. However, what surprised him was that Whittaker seemed content to stay patient and refused to aggressively pursue Adesanya even as the fight was slipping out his hands.
Bareman added that Adesanya himself couldn’t be too aggressive and risk getting caught with a counter by Whittaker. He said:
"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."
Watch Eugene Bareman’s conversation with Ariel Helwani in the video below:
Robert Whittaker feels a trilogy fight between him and Israel Adesanya is “inevitable”
Following his win over Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya suggested that he’s likely to defend his UFC middleweight title against top contender Jared Cannonier in June.
Cannonier faced Derek Brunson on the main card at UFC 271 and secured a TKO victory in the second round. After the win, the 37-year-old called for a title shot from UFC president Dana White.
Meanwhile, Whittaker felt he did enough to beat Adesanya on the judges’ scorecards. During the UFC 271 post-fight press conference, the former UFC middleweight champion asserted that he would face Adesanya for the third time sooner rather than later.
Whittaker said:
"Honestly, a third fight between me and Izzy is inevitable. It's inevitable because I am gonna stomp anybody who comes in front of me again and he knows that too… I think I am the person to beat him."
