For the first time in his career, the former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is in the midst of a three-fight losing skid. But according to his longtime coach, Eugene Bareman, he has a lot more to prove in the cage before he hangs up his gloves.
Adesanya, 36, last tasted victory in the cage in April 2023 when he defeated Alex Pereira to reclaim the UFC’s 185-pound throne — a fight which is his sole win in his past five outings.
The Kiwi has been absent from competition since a February TKO defeat to Frenchman Nassourdine Imavov in Saudi Arabia and, per Bareman, Adesanya is seeking to return to action before 2025 is out.
“Izzy, right now, had basically the start of the year off (after the Imavov loss), and he has come back into training in the last couple of months,” Bareman told Submission Radio, as noted by Fighters Only. “He’s training regularly, so he’s training every day, twice a day. And he needs to prepare his mind and body for a potential fight at the end of this year, and so that’s what he’s doing.”
Bareman notes, however, that a particular opponent isn’t in mind at the moment but it would stand to reason that ‘Stylebender’ would need to stack at least two wins together before becoming a possible candidate for a title bout.
“As far as opponents, I don’t know,” Bareman explained. “Izzy’s got a couple more in him, just give him a fun fight. Give him something exciting. Give him something fun. I haven’t really thought about specific names… leave it to the fans, I guess.”
But that said, City Kickboxing chief Bareman says that Adesanya would certainly be motivated by the prospect of revenge against Sean Strickland after the American former champion defeated him in September 2023.
“I think naturally as a fighter, Izzy wants to get that one back,” Bareman stated.
“I think that’s just natural. He knows Sean got the better of him, you can’t take nothing away from Sean that night. But I think Izzy, or us as a team, feel that we can definitely put on a better performance against Strickland. But that was his night. Sean got the job done… and he held the title for a little bit, and that was his night.”
