Israel Adesanya’s head coach, Eugene Bareman, expects to see an immediate rematch for “The Last Stylebender” against Alex Pereira. That means a hotly rumored fight against Pereira for surging welterweight Khamzat Chimaev won’t be taking place, because as Bareman put it, “he’s done literally nothing at middleweight.” Bareman explained his position on Submission Radio.
“I haven’t seen the numbers on the last fight, but I’m sure they’re very, very good. I think in the middleweight division, I still think that’s the biggest fight.
Adesanya Coach on Khamzat: “He’s Done Literally Nothing at Middleweight”
Khamzat’s a rising star, but he’s done literally nothing at middleweight. So, he hasn’t established himself. You’re talking about two guys at the top of the food chain in terms of their status in combat sports.
Khamzat’s a rising star. Like, he’s a massive rising star. But he’s not in the position of these two guys. This is the biggest fight. Khamzat still has to beat people at middleweight and work his way up to even fighting one of these guys. So, unless the politics take over and the business of the sport take over – and that’s essentially how we arrived at this fight that we’re talking about, right? So, it’s still the biggest fight to make.”
Ultimately, says Bareman, Pereira might want another fight, considering that he was behind on the judges’ scorecards until he knocked Adesanya out in the final round, but it’s not really up to him.
“At the end of the day, it’s not Alex’s choice. It will be Alex’s choice when he makes ‘x’ amount of title defenses and does well for the company and all that, then it becomes Alex’s choice. But at the moment we’ve got a champion who’s done so much for this company, who’s defended his title so many times. If he wants a rematch, I believe that that’s what he should get.
We’re quietly confident. You gotta understand, we were winning that fight relatively comfortably. We felt we were taking the rounds. But not comfortable enough – when you’re fighting somebody like that, whose gameplan appears to be, it’s not a guy who builds his gameplan around accumulation of damage. He’s a guy that builds his gameplan around mentally wearing down and trying to land one big shot.
And he’s comfortable giving rounds and then not panicking, because he gives away rounds and it’s part of a bigger picture for him. Setting up what he ultimately is looking for. And with a few adjustments we can make some changes there and build on a lot of positive things that happened in that fight for us.”
Is Eugene Bareman right about the middleweight matchup? Let us know in the comments.
