The coach said Adisaya would once again play in the light heavyweights

UFC China – Israel Adesanya has successfully defended the UFC middleweight title for the fourth consecutive time after a unanimous UFC 271 decision to defeat Robert Whittaker. He will stay at 185 pounds to continue his efforts to improve that record, but becoming another doubleweight champion in UFC history is certainly on his plan.

In March last year, Adisaya cross-level challenged then UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, but was unanimously defeated by the Poles and lost the first game of his professional MMA career. His head coach Eugene Bareman said a few days ago that the failure to test the waters does not mean that the team regrets the result.

"We have no regrets, the challenge to the light heavyweight championship is a natural opportunity, if we did not seize it at that time, it will be something that we regret to this day." Balman said. "If we think about that game today, what good would it be if we didn't accept it? Still winning the career record? That's probably the only benefit. And that defeat made Adi Saya grow into a better player, and it was perfectly normal to be defeated in the sport of fighting. ”

'Adisaya gained so much more from that game than he did against Paulo Costa, which essentially gave him the impetus to evolve to the next level, allowing him to do so against Marvin Vettori and Robert Whitaker today, so in my opinion, that loss didn't hurt him at all.

A career first defeat is always a difficult psychological test for players who have never been beaten, but it is clearly not a problem for Adi Saya. After losing to Bračovic, he won by unanimous in a midweight title-defense battle with Vitory last June, followed by the same victory over Whitaker in UFC 271.

"People talk about the undefeated aura on the players, which does exist in some players, but sometimes they need a clear understanding that there are holes in everyone and that no one is invincible in this sport. At some point, that perception is the key to pushing you to another level, and it inspires you to more energy, and I think that match against Bračović was like that for Adisaya. ”

Ahead of this championship double with Whitaker, Adisaya signed a brand new multi-game contract with the UFC. At the same time, UFC 271 is likely to have the next challenger, and he is Jared Cannonier.

But Balman said Adisaya will eventually play lightweight again because he wants to win another weight-down title, and the next time he does, the overall situation will be better than the last time he challenged Blačović.

"Goals don't go away because of your failures, and how many goals in history have people failed on their first attempt?" I believe that the idea and will to dominate the light and heavyweights still exist in Adisaya's heart. We will learn from our last failure and apply it to our second attempt. ”

"It's just that next time we'll make a different preparation, we'll make Adisaya more like a 205-pounder. Last time, we thought Adisaya could beat Blačović at the weight of a middleweighter and we didn't want to give him extra muscle because it would cause trouble for him to return to the middleweights next. ”

"So the next time we play in the light heavyweights, the different thing, and the only thing that's different, is to make Adisaya a real 205-pounder, rather than let him play against the 205-pound guys in a midweight form again." (UFC China Dana)

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