Israel Adesanya's coach Eugene Bareman bizarrely brought knives and machetes to training sessions after believing his fighters were becoming complacent.
Middleweight champion Adesanya is gearing up for the sixth defence of his title this Saturday at UFC 281 against old kickboxing rival Alex Pereira. 'The Last Stylebender' is looking to avenge his past two defeats to Pereira, one of which was a brutal knockout, as the pair fight for the first time in the cage.
Bareman is the head coach for fighters such as Adesanya, Dan Hooker and Brad Riddell at City Kickboxing in Auckland, New Zealand. The coach admitted many of the top fighters at the gym were becoming complacent and needed a wake-up call, with Hooker adding that Bareman brought knives to training sessions during this time.
What are your thoughts on Israel Adesanya's coach bringing knives to training sessions? Let us know in the comments section below
“Knives were pulled,” Hooker said on The MMA Hour. “Legit knives. He would have had them on this chair, there were a number of moments. He’s always packing. We got a few big telling offs, he kicked the hornets nest a few times. It had to happen to wake everyone up, maybe we were being complacent. After that, we definitely reached a new level. He demanded more out of us."
Adesanya added that Bareman also brought machetes to the gym, showing them off to fighters like the weapon was his toy. "There was a period of two to three weeks, it's like show and tell. He'd bring a new knife to the gym, not to intimidate, he's just a f****ng weirdo. He's one of those guys that goes to the bushes, hunting deer. He even brought a machete to the gym one day, a cool machete. It's like a kid with a new toy, he makes jokes about it."
Bareman competed in kickboxing and MMA before founding City Kickboxing in 2007, with the coach receiving awards after leading fighters such as Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski to UFC titles. Bareman admitted he had to show the fighters a side of him they have never seen before, with the coach being "tough and mean" to get the best out of his students.
"There was a stage in the camp where we just felt, it just wasn't good enough. We felt that although they were coming in and training really well, they weren't coming in and being responsible for excelling in their performance. We wanted them to separate themselves from the rest of the guys. To be the best that day, every day. We weren't able to get that early in this camp, so as coaches we chose to not accept that," he said.
