By Akeem Lawal
Eugene Bareman, the coach of Nigerian-born Israel Adesanya, has tipped the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion to successfully defend his title when he takes on Marvin Vettori in a rematch at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona this weekend, Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports.
Adesanya suffered the first loss of his pro MMA career when he moved up in weight to challenge light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 in March. He lost a unanimous decision to Blachowicz, but now returns to 185 pounds (where he remains undefeated) to defend his own belt against Vettori.
The two meet at UFC 263 on Sunday, three years after their first encounter that Adesanya won by split decision. It was a competitive fight and with Vettori going on a five-fight win streak since that loss, the stage is set for the Italian standout to get another crack at “The Last Stylebender.”
Speaking about what will be different this time around as far as how each man has developed over the past few years, Bareman believes Adesanya (20-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is still highly motivated to defeat Vettori (17-3-1 MMA, 7-2-1 UFC) a second time. Part of that motivation is due to the close scoring in the first fight, and part of it has to do with the perspective provided by the recent death of longtime City Kickboxing teammate and friend Fau Vake.
“I know Israel would like to be more clinical with this win and make it a lot more definitive,” Bareman said. “So that’s the motivation factor. But one of the things we always emphasize in this gym, is you have to love what you do. The only way to be successful in this sport is just to absolutely be obsessed and love fighting. And that’s what Israel is. And he just wants to fight. And sometimes you don’t get the ideal scenario that you need to fight. But sometimes you just love fighting so much that you just want to do it. And it doesn’t need to be too much motivation behind it.
“It just needs to be an understanding that we’re not around forever. Case in point our friend [Fau Vake]. Life is frail. The frailty of life is amazing. Like, you can be here one minute and gone the next. And if we’re able to do something and enjoy it while we’re still here and breathing, then maybe we should just do it. And that’s what it’s about.”
“I think emotionally and mentally, I think Marvin’s matured a little bit since their fight. So I think that’s gonna be a less of a factor in this fight. I think definitely Israel was able to call on getting Marvin a little bit emotional in some points during that fight, and using that to his advantage, but I don’t think that’ll be as big a factor this time. I just think he’s emotionally a more mature young man than he was when he fought Israel the first time,” Bareman said.
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