Coach Eugene Bareman: Israel Adesanya’s striking diversity will prove decisive at UFC 253

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Coach Eugene Bareman: Israel Adesanya’s striking diversity will prove decisive at UFC 253

Eugene Bareman knows Paulo Costa is a dangerous opponent, but thinks he’ll have a hard time keeping up with Israel Adesanya.

Bareman’s star student, UFC middleweight champion Adesanya (19-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), will look to notch his second title defense when he faces Costa (13-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in the main event of UFC 253, which takes place Sept. 26 at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

Costa’s no-fear, walk-forward style has posed plenty of problems for his opponents to date, with the Brazilian registering 12 finishes from his 13 career victories. While Bareman acknowledges the threat he brings, he doesn’t think Costa has the stand-up tools to hang with Adesanya.

“We can reflect back on a lot of Israel’s fights where he’s fought guys with big power and guys that were a lot more technically sound than Paulo Costa, but at the end of the day we haven’t fought Paulo Costa, and he seems to be a very powerful striker,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “And the part that you just never know until you’re in the cage, is how powerful this person is. Can Israel deflect his shots? Can Israel move out the way of his shots? That’s the part that we never really know until the opening 30 or 40 seconds, and that’s always the most nervous time.

“But I think Israel can mitigate his power, and what I think will happen is that (Costa) just doesn’t have enough diversity in his striking to stay with Israel during the fight, to stay on equal part with Israel. If you’re just relying on your power and you have nothing to back that up, there’s nothing behind it, there’s no other plan that you know intimately, then it’s just not gonna be enough, it’s not gonna be diverse enough to keep up with Israel.”

Bareman sees a contrast in striking styles between Adesanya and Costa, but is confident that Adesanya has the wider set of skills, as well as fight-ending abilities of his own.

“If you look at Israel and you look at his fights and you look at where he’s done damage to people, that’s all timing and precision,” Bareman said. “That’s putting the shot at the right place at the right time. That’s what that is. That’s how you knock people out with the least amount of effort. Also, Israel’s a guy who’s very strong. You can ask any of his sparring partners. If he sits down, which he doesn’t often do, and hits you in the right spot, it’s gonna hurt, it’s gonna hurt.

“So, Israel’s prepared to (load up). If he has to be accurate, he’ll be accurate. If he has to be strong, he’ll be strong. If he has to sit down a little bit and maybe stand a little bit, stay in one place for a little bit longer than he necessarily wants to, to land a bit of power, he’s prepared to do that as well. So, we’re pretty happy that we’ve got all our bases covered.”

Coach Eugene Bareman: Israel Adesanya’s striking diversity will prove decisive at UFC 253