Eugene Bareman reveals what's next for Israel Adesanya if he beats Robert Whittaker - "We set ourselves a goal that we didn't accomplish"

Israel Adesanya is scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker in a highly-anticipated title rematch at UFC 271. 'The Last Stylebender' will further cement his position as the 185-pound king if he manages to defend his title for a fourth time on Saturday night.

Adesanya's coach Eugene Bareman recently revealed the champion's next possible move if he defeats Whittaker. With barely any competition left among the middleweight elite, Bareman was asked which weight class Adesanya might fight in next.

Making his best guess, Bareman predicted that Adesanya would stay at 185 pounds for his next outing. However, the City Kickboxing coach revealed they would target heights which they are yet to scale, seemingly hinting to another venture to light heavyweight down the line.

Bareman said in an interview with Submission Radio:

"I think another middleweight fight. But we set ourselves a goal that we didn't accomplish and those goals, they don't just disappear, they don't just go away, you just keep striving for them."

Watch Eugene Bareman's interview on Submission Radio below:

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Israel Adesanya on his first outing against Robert

Whittaker

Israel Adesanya dethroned Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 243 in October 2019. In one of the most dominant performances of his career, Adesanya completely outclassed 'The Reaper', scoring a second-round TKO to be crowned the undisputed champion.

However, Adesanya recently revealed that he did not stick to the gameplan during his title win over Whittaker. The UFC middleweight champion claims he was surprised by his choice to stand and trade with Whittaker, which is contradictory to his usual style.

Adesanya also believes Whittaker's defeat was humbling enough to stop the Australian from trash-talking ahead of their second meeting. 'The Last Stylebender' recently said on his YouTube channel:

“I was surprised with the way I played the game. I called an audible without realizing it, because we had a game plan but then I matched his energy. I was just like, ‘Right, you want to stand 10 toes down, f*ck it. I can stand 10 toes down and I can get buck wild.’ So I matched his energy and I just called an audible. I fought differently. I humbled him to the sense that he can’t say the sh*t he was saying the first time around, because he was talking all that sh*t saying this and that, ‘I think Adesanya isn’t as good as he thinks he is.’"

Watch Israel Adesanya's latest YouTube video below: