Eugene Bareman says he will stand by Israel Adesanya no matter what comes next after the former UFC middleweight champion’s latest setback.
Adesanya, now 24-6 in MMA and 13-6 in the UFC, suffered his fourth straight defeat when he was finished by Joe Pyfer at UFC Fight Night 271 in Seattle this past February. He was stopped by TKO in Round 2 after winning Round 1 on all three judges' scorecards against Pyfer, who improved to 16-3 in MMA and 6-1 in the UFC.
"It's a tough one because I would fully support him if he turned around and said that he didn't want to fight," Bareman said. "But I'm also in a position where I will fully support him if he turns around and says he is going to fight. We've been together since the start, and that's not going to change."
Many people have encouraged Adesanya to retire, but he maintains that he is not done fighting. Bareman believes any potential rebound will be more of a mental challenge than a physical one and sees reasons for optimism.
"I know where the changes have to be made for Israel, and I'm not going to talk about those publicly, but you see glimmers, right?" Bareman said. "You see glimmers of the old Israel. So, it's just about turning those glimmers into longer sustained bouts of effort. He just has to do some soul searching, mate, like you do after every fight."
Bareman added that Adesanya "has to find it inside him" and "search deep this time" before deciding his future.
