Israel Adesanya proved what he could do inside an MMA Octagon once again last weekend when he was able to defeat Anderson Silva. Throughout the fight, Adesanya displayed his remarkable striking skills, something which sets him apart from a lot of other fighters in the UFC.
The Luke Thomas Show looked to talk about the reason that Israel Adesanya, and several other fighters coming from City Kickboxing, seem to be better at Striking. For this, he interviewed the coach of the gym, Eugene Bareman.
“Let me just say this first, I don’t think we are doing something particularly special to the rest of the world. I think (and I’m going to get criticism for this) the MMA world is definitely behind the rest of the world when it comes to standup. I’ve been able to take advantage of that. I don’t have the advantages that I have when I go into a Glory tournament, or when I take my Boxing fighters.”
While talking about it, Bareman confessed that he knew he would receive criticism for this, but he felt that UFC was behind other sports when it came to standing up and striking. He was, thus, taking advantage of that.
“The standard of striking, if you’d like to call it that, in the UFC, is not at the level that other sports are. That’s why I have an advantage at the moment. I won’t have that advantage because the rest of the world, they’ll catch up.”
However, he did admit that the others could very well catch up soon. He went on to say that they were ‘fight nerds’ at the gym. They studied different techniques to make their fighting better, something that Israel Adesanya was taking advantage of.
“The MMA world is definitely behind the rest of the world, especially when it comes to stand-up, and I’ve been able to take advantage of that.” – Eugene Bareman explains why his City Kickboxing fighters are having so much success in the UFC #TLTS @lthomasnews pic.twitter.com/CIBGO5P8WJ
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) February 14, 2019