Israel Adesanya's trainer helped the UFC champion bring back "old things" to secure his revenge win over Alex Pereira.
Adesanya returned to the throne in the UFC middleweight division earlier this month after getting his revenge in an immediate rematch with Pereira in Miami. The Nigerian star recorded a highlight-reel KO after being backed up against the fence, to finally get his first win over 'Poatan' having lose to the Brazilian three times including twice in the professional kickboxing ranks.
Prior to his recent outings against Pereira, 'The Last Stylebender' had come under fire for his lacklustre performances which saw him fail to stop his opponents in several defences. However after securing redemption with a statement win, trainer Eugene Bareman suggested it took a new approach to overcome his recent struggles in the octagon.
“Basically we needed Israel to be more aggressive,” Bareman told Combat TV when assessing the new champion's revenge win at UFC 287. “We needed him to lead more. We needed him to be better in the mid-range, where he used to be a master of, but he hasn’t needed to be a master of because he can just beat guys on the outside where they can’t touch him.
“You can’t do that against a high-level kickboxer anymore. This is high level. You’re fighting a guy that’s done standup his whole life. We had to bring back old things and bring them back onto the table and unlock them, and that’s what he did. He did a fantastic job.”
Adesanya's trainer Bareman had initially been sceptical about accepting the rematch on such short notice, having suggested that the Nigerian takes a break before chasing Pereira again. However the 33-year-old remained defiant and silenced critics with a devastating display to return to the summit.
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It is likely that he will now move on from his rivalry with Pereira and focus on restoring his dominance at 185lb with a whole new list of challengers queuing up for a shot at the crown. It was initially expected that Adesanya could take a short break after returning so promptly, but Bareman believes he will be back out in the summer.
“Someone new,” Bareman said on The MMA Hour. “Someone different. I don’t wanna fight these guys that we’ve already fought, there’s nothing. We’re in the sport to prove that we’re the best, and when you beat someone two, three times you’ve proven that. So yeah, someone new. I don’t know, it’s a funny division when you’ve got such a dominant champion.
"What it does is it provides weird opportunities. So it will provide some weird opportunity for someone that people are least expecting to get a title shot, to get a title shot. That’s where these guys who haven’t fought Israel, there’s an opportunity there if they jump on it. We want to fight straight away. We’ll fight in eight weeks. There’s an opportunity there, someone needs to grab it."
