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Israel Adesanya's head coach, Eugene Bareman, spoke to his star pupil just hours before his upcoming fight against fellow middleweight striker Nassourdine Imavov. During the conversation, the City Kickboxing mastermind apologized for seemingly underpreparing 'The Last Stylebender' for Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305.
In an emotional moment, Bareman made the stunning claim that he and his team of coaches hadn't readied Adesanya to the best of their ability for his middleweight title fight against du Plessis. The bout, while competitive, ended in a fourth-round submission loss, for which Bareman blames himself.
"Izzy, you turned it around. The coaches know that last fight is a real hole at heart because we just knew we hadn't done the work, and we asked you to flip that and you did. So, the feeling through the whole camp, the whole fight week, is completely different than last time. It's just full, it's confidence. Confidence from all the coaching team, and Izzy, yeah, thank you."
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Check out Eugene Bareman apologizing to Israel Adesanya:
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It's a startling claim, especially if it's the complete opposite of the rhetoric Bareman and the Adesanya camp had adopted ahead of the bout with du Plessis. Notably, there was talk of Adesanya being in the best-ever physical condition and well-prepared. However, it may well have been bluster.
Israel Adesanya is now on a two-fight losing streak
Israel Adesanya spent much of his career as an undefeated star, capturing the UFC middleweight title and defending it several times. Unfortunately, that all-time great run has now hit a serious skid. After rebounding from a TKO loss to Alex Pereira by beating him in a rematch, he lost to Sean Strickland in a massive upset at UFC 297.
Check out Dricus du Plessis submitting Israel Adesanya:
It cost Adesanya the middleweight title, and things only worsened thereafter. 'The Last Stylebender' returned to challenge newly-minted middleweight champion and bitter rival Dricus du Plessis, but lost in round four via submission, leaving on a two-fight losing streak and 1-3 in his last four fights.
