Fighters training in City Kickboxing Gym has been performing extremely well in the UFC. Eugene Bareman who runs the gym produced two UFC champions last year.
Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski were the latest amongst the fighters training at the City Kickboxing Gym to win UFC titles. Along with two UFC champions, CKB also boasts of having top tier UFC fighters like Dan Hooker, Kai Kara France and Brad Riddell etc.
All these fighters from CKB are staying extremely active and also winning fights. Eugene Bareman and Israel Adesanya recently appeared in an interview on MMAFightingonSBN alongside hosts Jose Young and Ester Lin. Israel and Bareman explained the reason behind the success of his gyms and why all his athletes manage to remain healthy at the same time.
The host of the show Jose Young gave the example of American Top Team, where fighters like Daniel Cormier, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold couldn’t stay healthy at the same time.
“It’s being in the gym all the time,” Bareman said. “Not taking too much time between fights. It’s like using the window of opportunity that everybody has in their career
“Everybody talks about training smart but there’s one thing to talk about it and one thing to do it. If you look at AKA sparring and our sparring…we’re completely different. In our camp, we need to prioritize our skills and what we’re doing and not necessarily some of our other athletic credentials that’s why these guys can be so active
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya explained that he went on a trip after his fight against Kelvin Gastelum because he hadn’t taken a break in nearly five fights.
“I went back to Nigeria because even throughout my UFC career, I have skipped on five trips. I was supposed to go to Europe and to my friends’ wedding in Thailand, but I refrained because it would have f****d up my timeline.
“But after my Atlanta fight, I went to Nigeria, I went to Dubai and I just messed around for a bit and came back to the gym. That was like after five or six back to back fights. So you know you cannot foot on the gas all the time, sometimes you have to pull the breaks and relax for a while.
Adesanya then said that Bareman works hard to make sure that he is always in the gym and focused.
“He is always on my ass,” Israel Adesanya said on Bareman when asked how does he ensure his fighters are always in the gym. “I am in LA, I have been doing press, I have been doing world tours..let me come back from the trip…I know he does it because he still has to stay on me so that I don’t slip.
“Now if Dan came over to help me with my sparring and Brad came over to help me with my sparring. Afterwards, you have to come back back. Like the AKA’s, after the fight is done they f**k off and then they don’t give their body back to the people that gave it for them. So that’s the culture he has created like the boys put their fucking bodies on the line. Some people are going to get hurt…freak accidents you know in the gym because they’re helping you out and then when it’s your turn you don’t return the favour…that’s a shit friend…that’s a shit partner
“So that’s the culture he has created along with other coaches to give back to the gyms,” Adesanya concluded.
Israel Adesanya will be defending his title against Yoel Romero this weekend at UFC 248 in Las Vegas.
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