The speculation surrounding the main event of UFC
300 has reached a fever pitch in the last few weeks. One of the
matchups that has been on the radar is Israel
Adesanya vs. Dricus Du
Plessis for the middleweight title.
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Eugene
Bareman, Adesanya’s longtime head trainer at City Kickboxing,
told The MacLife that “The Last Stylebender” is already in
camp for a possible clash at UFC 300.
“I can say that we are ready to fight. Israel is ready to fight.”
Bareman said. “He is in camp, has been in camp, and we answered
that call. ‘Can you be ready for this?’ And we assessed it because
Israel is coming off an injury… And we decided as a team that,
yeah, let’s get into camp. Let’s come back a little earlier at,
some risk, some proper risk. There is a strong possibility that
this fight could happen on this date and let’s act as if we are
fighting on that date. So, we are ready to go.”
The
City Kickboxing head also explained the reasoning behind the
team choosing to get back in camp for UFC 300 despite Adesanya’s
decision to take a hiatus from the sport following a one-sided
unanimous decision title loss to Sean
Strickland at
UFC 293 in September last year.
„More importantly, we don’t want to be the guy, the team that lets
down this company that’s given us so much. And we don’t want to let
down the fans out there,” Bareman said. “This is the biggest event
in UFC history. If it means Israel having to push his schedule and
double down on his rehab and get better. We’re just not willing to
be the guy that will disappoint the world and the company if they
need us. We are just not going to do that. That would be more
detrimental for us moving forward than it would help us and we’re
just not willing to do that. So, that’s just as big a factor in our
decision as well. So,we’re ready to go brother.”
Bareman didn’t comment on whether the clash had been officially
finalized on Du Plessis’ side but reiterated that his pupil will
not be the reason their potential title fight ultimately fails to
materialize on April 13.
Du Plessis recently secured the middleweight title in a main event
clash against Sean
Strickland at UFC
297 in January.