Israel
Adesanya wanted to throw the kitchen sink at Sean
Strickland going into the final frame of their
UFC 293 title fight, but coach Eugene Bareman advised
otherwise.
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Adesanya was a -650 favorite going into his UFC 293 title defense
against Strickland, who stepped up on short notice for an injured
Dricus
Du Plessis. Strickland knocked down the champ in the very first
round en route to a dominant decision win in one of the greatest
upsets in UFC title fight history.
Adesanya had no doubt he was losing entering the final round and
wanted to go out with guns blazing. However,
City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman wanted Adesanya to
employ a more “tactical” approach.
“I never lost hope,” Adesanya said in an interview with Teddy Atlas. “I went back to the
corner, Round 3 or Round 4, whatever it was, I was like, ‘Right, we
go this round, we must go this round.’ Even like when I asked
Eugene in the fifth round, I said ‘Should I just go?’ And he’s
like, ‘No, let’s be tactical.’ I wanted to kind of be like, ‘F—k
it, let’s go.’ Like, if I die, I die, like, go out on your
shield.
”He was like, ‘Let’s be tactical.’ It got to the point where I
realized this fight’s getting away from me. It got to a point where
I felt like, ‘Damn. It’s too far gone.’ Like when someone’s in a
race in the 100 meters, he was too far ahead and I just couldn’t
catch up. I was trying my best to try and finish him in the early
rounds. Regardless, I never lost hope, that’s the thing.”
Adesanya doesn’t have his next fight booked, but he recently
revealed that he will be back in action
sooner than originally expected.