Israel Adesanya's coach recognizes that the champion did not impress in the duel with Robert Whittaker

Adesanya greets Whittaker before the fight at UFC 271. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram @ufc

Even the team Israel adesanya acknowledged that the Nigerian did not have an 'eye-popping' performance in the UFC 271. In an interview with MMA fighting, the coach of middleweight champion (up to 83,9kg) Eugene Bareman acknowledged that his athlete could have been more aggressive but emphasized that the 'Stylebender' did his job convincingly.

READ MORE: STRONG IMAGE: Amateur MMA athlete 'splits his head' after colliding with ring support

See too

WWE legend Booker T says Israel Adesanya is 'the Muhammad Ali of MMA'

Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman reveals which athletes made him feel afraid before stepping into the Octagon

With an undefined future, Kayla Harrison is considering a move down to bantamweight and cites Julianna Peña as a target

“I may be biased, but I think 4-1 is a good assessment. There are some things I asked him to do. You could see he was suffering from Whittaker waiting so long and all the waiting was making Adesanya a little eager to be aggressive. I asked him to throw out what we called red herrings to see a little more of Whittaker's intentions, and when he really wanted to attack, he could be much more confident. But sometimes you can't always translate what's happening in the corner. He did that a little bit, but not as much as he should have,” Eugene said.

The champion's coach admitted that he also expected a more aggressive stance from the challenger, revealed that he expected a better stance from Adesanya but said he was happy with the Nigerian's performance in general.

“What surprised us most is that, as we thought the fight was slipping away from Whittaker, we thought he would take a little more risk, but he seemed very content with not coming so aggressively. I won't say this was one of Adesanya's standout performances, but he did the job convincingly, so I'm happy with that. I'm not going to say it was a dominance, because I think Adesanya could have done better. I think defensively he did well, he could have used a little more attack”, concluded Bareman.

No UFC 271, which took place last Saturday (12), Israel adesanya derrotou Robert whittaker again, this time in the unanimous decision of the judges. The Nigerian has a record of 22 wins and just one setback in professional MMA.

Poatan in danger? Veteran calls for 'war' and believes in victory against Brazilian in UFC