Israel Adesanya has been put through the hardest training camp of his career for UFC 281 as his coach admits the top fighters at his gym were getting complacent.
Middleweight champion Adesanya, 33, looks to make the sixth defence of his title next weekend against former kickboxing rival Alex Pereira at Madison Square Garden. 'Stylebender' has lost twice to Pereira in kickboxing, going the distance with the Brazilian in 2017 before being brutally knocked out by him in their rematch the following year.
Eugene Bareman, Adesanya's head coach, thinks there was a "bit of complacency" at their City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, New Zealand. Bareman has ensured that top fighters such as Adesanya and Dan Hooker are still working as hard as they did at the start of their MMA careers, so he made sure to put them through extra tough training camps for their upcoming fights in New York.
