Will Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman fight each other? Coach Eugene Bareman does not think so. There have been recent murmurs about the two facing each other in the octagon. However, there have not been any official developments on it.
Both Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya are from Nigeria originally and they share a very good bond. However, Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz wants to see the fight take place. In a recent interview with TMZ, Ali reportedly said a fight between the two champs will generate an insane amount of revenue. And the idea came from Mike Tyson.
Kamaru Usman defended his title a couple of months ago against Colby Covington at UFC 268. With a fresh crop of challenges such as Vicente Luque and Khamzat Chimaev coming up, Usman seems to be set to stay at 170lbs for the foreseeable future. Israel Adesanya on the other hand will fight in less than a week at 271 against Robert Whittaker.
Eugene Bareman: ‘Our camp does not speak about Israel Adesanya vs Kamaru Usman out of respect’
Israel Adesanya’s head Eugene Bareman discussed the Idea of Kamaru Usman taking on the current middleweight champion. However, he refused to give the idea any further life as he shot it down straight away.
He said, “Yeah look that’s Kamaru’s team, That’s the way that they do things. My team and I, we walk a different path. Kamaru and the people that he puts around him I don’t speak on that because that’s called respect. So Israel and Kamaru are friends. Respectfully I will never talk about them fighting. Israel is the one who said they won’t fight. Israel said they were good friends.”
“I know a little bit about their relationship. Out of respect I am not gonna even talk about it or contemplate it Just in the way that kamaru and Israel don’t. No one in my team would.”
The Kiwi also took a dig at Ali Abdelaziz. “That’s kamaru’s team, Kamaru’s manager and they do things differently. And Kamaru’s manager does not have the same respect that I do for Israel and (Kamaru’s) relationship. I got nothing to do with them don’t care on the matter.”
Israel Adesanya vs Robert Whittaker!!
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) February 6, 2022
We’re counting down the days until #UFC271… pic.twitter.com/50CQM0D7KK
Bareman will be back in action shortly as Izzy will fight another of his former foe in Robert Whittaker. He also spoke on the first fight between Izzy and Bobby Knuckles. You can catch it here.
