Skill over size: Israel Adesanya primed to silence doubters against Paulo Costa at UFC 253, says coach
Israel Adesanya’s coach believes the Kiwi UFC star will silence his critics once and for all when he defends his middleweight title against Paulo Costa next week.
Regardless of how much success an athlete achieves, they will always have their doubters. That comes with any sport and for Adesanya, who holds a perfect 19-0 MMA record, it’s no different.
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Israel Adesanya puts his middleweight belt on the line against Paulo Costa at UFC 253.
There are still those who question if ‘The Last Stylebender’ is worth the hype, which was only fuelled by his bizarre fight against Yoel Romero in March.
At UFC 253 next week he faces perhaps his most formidable test, at least on paper, against Brazilian powerhouse Costa, who is also undefeated and has won all but two of his 13 bouts by knockout.
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The chiselled Costa fights with a relentless physicality that his supporters claim Adesanya will be unable to handle, but Eugene Bareman is confident that he’s more than ready to put that theory to bed.
Bareman, Adesanya’s head coach at Auckland gym City Kickboxing, says his fighter is primed to make a statement against Costa while also scoring another point in the age-old age debate that bigger isn’t always better.
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Brazilian Paulo Costa (right) is undefeated in 13 bouts.
“If you’re still doubting Israel’s place in the division, if you’re still doubting Israel’s place in the sport, this just helps put all those people to rest and also puts to bed a lot of these common views that you need to be big and muscular and huge to beat someone who’s skilful,” Bareman told Submission Radio. “Skill will always prevail, and that’s the battle that we really want to prove to people.
“This is the time for Israel to make a super giant step in terms of where he is, in regards to what other people think of him, the fans. And I think this is the perfect guy to do it against.”
Bareman said Costa may be the most powerful opponent they have come up against, which could make for some nervous moments in the opening stages of the fight.
But Adesanya is as slick defensively as he is with is striking and proved in last year’s war against Kelvin Gastelum that he can sustain his power deep into the championship rounds.
Bareman has prepared Adesanya to break down Costa over a long period and questioned if ‘The Eraser’ had enough tools to turn to if his initial plan does not work out.
“The part that you just never know until you’re in the cage, is how powerful this person is,” Bareman said. “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 he 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 going to be enough. It’s not going to be diverse enough to keep up with Israel.”
Meanwhile, Bareman said next month may be too early for Dan Hooker to meet third-ranked lightweight Tony Ferguson, although he has no doubt the ‘Hangman’ would jump at the chance.
The UFC was hoping to match Ferguson against Dustin Poirier at UFC 254 on October 25 but has not been able to come to terms with the latter.
Ranked fifth in the division, Hooker, who suffered a close decision loss to Poirier in a fight of the year contender in June, would be the next logical choice to face Ferguson with fourth-ranked Conor McGregor’s future up in the air.
“October is a bit early for us, otherwise we would jump in there straight away for sure,” Bareman told Submission Radio.
“He would do it. I would have to talk him out of it, but he would probably do it one hundred per cent. But Dan’s just back now, he’s getting fit again, it’s good to have him back in the gym. “If they can’t come to terms, and it sounds like they haven’t come to terms, then we’ll jump in there and fight Tony for sure.
