Eugene Bareman has issued an update on Israel Adesanya’s potential return to the Octagon.
The former middleweight champion hasn’t fought since his unanimous decision loss to Sean Strickland back in September 2023.
Since then the New Zealander has been taking time off and no return date has been pencilled in so far by the UFC.
Eugene Bareman Reveals Israel Adesanya Return
Adesanya’s head coach Eugene Bareman has spoken about when the former champion could make his potential return to the cage. Speaking on Combat TV Bareman said; “Izzy’s back training, so he’s back in the swing of things,”
“We’re training just in case there’s an eventuality of a fight. We’re getting him fit and he’s getting ready to take up a potential date should one come up soon.
“He’s basically finished his little hiatus and he’s ready to come back. So just give us a date, give us an opponent and we’ll show up ready to go.”
“We’ve been going for a good month-and-a-half now, so he’s probably on the edge of starting to look like he’s getting started to get back in shape,”
Bareman said. “A couple more months, another month-and-a-half, he’ll be flying. He’ll be back to pre-hiatus kind of level.
“He’s looking good. It’s good to have him back in the gym. He seems to have a renewed sort of energy, and he’s definitely resided to looking after himself really well.
He’s been making the most of his time off and he feels like he’s refreshed and ready to go.”
Refreshed Adesanya set to return to UFC Octagon soon
Since his UFC debut back in 2018, Adesanya has been on a rampage in the middleweight division destroying every opponent the UFC have given him. He has constantly fought every 4/5 months since then.
After all of the competing over the years and the shock loss to Sean Strickland a hiatus away from MMA was the right thing to do for Adesanya. A refreshed Adesanya is now set on another journey to claim back his middleweight belt.
