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Israel Adesanya’s Coach Reveals New Return Date After UFC 305 Heartbreak, and Its Sooner Than You Think
Israel Adesanya’s coach reveals a new potential return date after the UFC 305 setback, keeping fans hopeful about the former champ's highly-anticipated comeback.
Israel Adesanya might be returning to the octagon in 2024 itself. This has been hinted at by none other than Adesanya’s coach, Eugene Bareman. While ‘Izzy’ missed out on his glory moment in the UFC 305 main event, Bareman stated that ‘The Last Stylebender’ is very much keen on making a return to the UFC octagon soon.
In an interview with Combat TV, he said, “I would say that Izzy will fight again this year as well. It could be all on again, this year, it just doesn’t stop.” At present, Adesanya has traveled back to Nigeria, to take some time off and connect with his roots.
UFC 305 was Adesanya’s chance to cement his position as the apex predator of the middleweight division again. Challenging the champion Dricus du Plessis for the title, Adesanya went on a verbal tirade as the matchday came closer. After claiming himself as the ‘Real African Champion’, Adesanya called Du Plessis out for having a ‘colonial’ mindset.
Coming into the match, Adesanya looked as the firm favorite with former UFC champions like Alexander Volkanovski heavily favoring ‘Izzy’.
However, once the match began, Du Plessis’ unorthodox style caused significant problems for Adesanya. While ‘Izzy’ looked to attack, Du Plessis stood his ground and let Adesanya empty his tank. In a moment of brilliance, Du Plessis took Adesanya down and caught him in a choke which ultimately led Adesanya to tap out.
This was quite a bitter pill for Adesanya to swallow. Despite ruling the middleweight division once, Adesanya initially lost his title to Alex Pereira. However, he quickly made a comeback and clinched his title back from Poatan. Unfortunately, Adesanya did not win any matches further. In what was a shock loss, ‘Izzy’ lost his title to Sean Strickland. Reflecting on his recent losses, Eugene Bareman opined that the UFC 305 setback was pretty easy to accept.
Speaking on the WTFATG podcast, Eugene Bareman mentioned that with Du Plessis, due credit has to be given to the South African. Bareman spoke highly of Du Plessis’ performance inside the octagon. But for the Strickland loss, Bareman put the entire blame on Adesanya. He stated that ‘Izzy’ looked inexplicably off-color and did everything wrong on the day.
Now, trying to cope with the downward slump, Adesanya is looking to make a quick turnaround. With events lined up for the UFC, whether his wish will be fulfilled or not will be interesting to watch.
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