The City Kick-boxing head coach, Eugene Bareman, believes that the number one contender of the middleweight division Dricus Du Plessis will need to fight again after missing out on a title fight against Israel Adesanya.
While speaking on Submission Radio, the head coach lashed out at the number one contender who currently is still undefeated in the UFC. Bareman claims that due to Du Plessis not pushing through with the injury that he sustained during his TKO win over Robert Whittaker in UFC 290, Du Plessis is unable to immediately gain a title shot after UFC 293 on Sept. 9.
Israel Adesanya, the current middleweight champion, and Du Plessis had a fiery altercation in the cage after Du Plessis gained his victory at UFC 290, but his injury has led Israel Adesanya’s next opponent being, Sean Strickland, who is currently ranked 5 in the middleweight division.
Eugene Bareman Talks Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland
Bareman stated that ‘It is what it is. He didn’t want to push through his injury. It doesn’t matter to me. He has to go back and fight someone else.’
He continued:
“The problem is if you don’t step up to take fights then you go into the pool. That’s a fact. Nothing in this sport is solid until there is something signed on the dotted line.’ The head coach then questioned Du Plessis by stating ‘and we’ve fought through horrific injuries because you don’t take that lightly. And the problem with them is they’ve had and injury. And yeah it’s been a bad injury. So what? You’ve taken your shot for granted. You think you’re going to get it again.”
Adesanya’s head coach closed of his statements on Du Plessis with, “They never took it. And now they should not be sitting comfortable thinking that they’ve got the next shot, because in this sport, it’s just not true.’ With Jared Cannonier coming off an impressive win over Marvin Vettori and Khamzat Chimaev v Paulo Costa set to fight in October at UFC 294, is Du Plessis truly safe as the next contender for the winner of Israel Adesanya v Sean Strickland or is Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman justified in his thinking. We won’t know until the fall out of UFC 294 because as Bareman puts it ‘you don’t what this machine does. You don’t know the UFC.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
UFC 293 will go down on September 9th, at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Do you think Dricus du Plessis will jump straight back in line to face Israel Adesanya once recovered? Let us know in the comments!
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images and Embed from Getty Images
