In a bid to move forward, Israel Adesanya has had to look back to the past.
When the two-time UFC middleweight champion returns to the octagon this weekend, it will be the first time since February 2019 that he hasn’t been fighting for a title, and the first since July 2018 that he hasn’t been on a pay-per-view.
In fact, his five-round main event against Frenchman Nassourdine Imavov in Saudi Arabia on Sunday morning will be just the fourth time in his 18 UFC bouts that fans have not had to pay the additional premium of a pay-per-view main card to watch him in action.
For Adesanya, the bout comes on the back of the first losing streak of his professional MMA career – dropping back-to-back title fights – and Eugene Bareman, his coach at Auckland’s City Kickboxing gym, told the Herald it had seen a return to a familiar place during training camp.
“It’s not like we’ve been any more relaxed, but we just know that the whole theatre is like, you know, it’s not a pay-per-view, it’s not a world title,” Bareman said.
“It’s just brought us back to a time that we knew and that existed before all that, and the majority of Israel’s career was spent in that time, not in this time.
“That’s a recent phenomenon in the last three or four years, but the other 12, 13, 14 years was spent a little bit closer to this somewhat; without that pressure, just building yourself, trying to get ahead of the next guy, get ahead of the next guy. I think it’s refreshing for us.”
The bout between Adesanya – ranked at No 2 in the middleweight division – and Imavov (No 5) is still a top-level clash, with the winner establishing themselves as a potential title challenger later in the year.
However, there were suggestions that not being part of a pay-per-view was an indication of Adesanya’s place in the promotion now.
Those weren’t sentiments Bareman particularly agreed with.
“He’s not on a pay-per-view because he’s just been at the head of every pay-per-view for the last four or five years. Some of the biggest ones in the sport. So, he’s on a fight night as the main event.
“I don’t know, it’s hard to see that that’s a step down on it. That’s something for the fans to decide,” Bareman said.
“Is it a step down? Yeah, maybe – but maybe it should be. He’s lost a couple of championship fights, maybe he needs to come down a little bit, but to build himself back up. Maybe that’s how it should work.”
The event in Saudi Arabia is the first of a busy start to the year for Bareman’s team. At UFC level, top Kiwi talents Carlos Ulberg and Dan Hooker are both scheduled to return in March in bouts that could establish them as the next challenger for the title in their respective divisions, with plenty of others preparing for bouts on the local scene.
Bareman also indicated that flyweight Kai Kara-France could be back in action in the first part of the year, and was hopeful of the 31-year-old being confirmed as the next title challenger.
“I think we’re looking pretty good. I think there’s no one else. I think Kai’s the logical choice.
“I think Kai’s so, so much the logical choice, I don’t think there’s someone even close to him. Sometimes it comes down to it could be either or, but I think he’s clearly the next choice.
“I think this year is the busiest I’ve ever been, not just with all the UFC guys having fights, but also the nature in which some of those fights are coming short notice and then locally it’s so busy as well.”
They also have overseas talents who have brought their training camps to the Auckland gym, with Kaan Ofli (Australia) also on the Saudi Arabia card, while Kevin Jousset (France) and Rong Zhu (China) are in action at UFC 312 in Sydney the week after.
Jousset is based in New Zealand and has been with the gym for year, however, Ofli and Zhu have come over looking to maximise their build-up to their respective bouts – and bring new looks onto the mats.
“Stylistically, you’re the product of your background and the coaches you’ve been with, so it’s good to get different bodies in and bring a different style.
“The interesting part for us is we can look at something like that and we can be like ‘Well, how can what we do complement all the really good attributes you already have?’
“It’s really cool to have different styles and different approaches, different mentalities as well around the gym, because you can learn and feed off them. It’s just a big learning process, really.”
Bareman added that while athletes from outside of the country have made the gym home for their training camps – and they had former UFC middleweight champion and longtime Adesanya rival Robert Whittaker there recently for a short visit to scope out a potential partnership in the future – there was a strict criteria newcomers from abroad had to meet.
“The only way to get to the gym is you have to know someone that knows someone. You know, two or three removed.
“Everybody knows that policy, and that’s just because that’s a backstop against bad characters. It’s a character reference.
“If you know someone that knows someone, then we can go, ‘oh, is the dude all right? Or is the dude an asshole?’ If you know someone that knows someone, that’s normally a good enough relationship for the person to be like, ‘Nah, he’s an asshole. Don’t let him come to the gym.’
“One bad apple spoils the barrel. Everybody’s heard that, so it’s just a process; no one can come to the fight team unless they’ve been vouched for by someone that we know.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
'I’ve done a lot for myself, but I’m doing it for someone else now.'