Israel Adesanya: "Everybody has a weakness" - Israel Adesanya's coach warns Khamzat Chimaev after recent UFC title win

Israel Adesanya's coach, Eugene Bareman, recently shared his thoughts on Khamzat Chimaev winning the middleweight title against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 last month.

Chimaev dominated du Plessis on the ground over five rounds in their middleweight title fight at UFC 319 last month and got his hand raised via unanimous decision. In the aftermath, many wondered whether the 185-pound division had contenders who could pose a threat to Chimaev's reign.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Bareman admitted that he hadn't watched the fight. However, he lauded Chimaev's grappling prowess and said:

"The guy's a talent. The guy is a machine. I've watched a lot of him, I just haven't watched that particular fight yet."

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Issuing a warning for Chimaev and his title reign, Bareman continued:

"Everybody has a weakness, doesn't matter who you are. You might have seen a dominating performance in that fight but it's all about the different styles and how they match up. We've also seen him in great difficulty in some fights... It's gonna be interesting."

Catch Eugene Bareman's comments below (11:38):

Israel Adesanya reacts to Khamzat Chimaev beating Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319

Israel Adesanya believes the UFC middleweight division is in good hands and lauded Khamzat Chimaev for his dominant title victory over Dricus du Plessis. Adesanya pointed out that Chimaev's cardio had improved significantly and would "a mess to deal with" for other middleweights.

In a YouTube video (via @ChampRDS on X), Adesanya reacted to Chimaev making easy work of du Plessis and said:

"Not what I expected, but I'm glad that Khamzat fixed his cardio, or improved his cardio to the point where he can go five rounds and just ragdoll people, that a mess. That's a mess to deal with, because I thought DDP [du Plessis] Round 4 would be able to stuff the take downs to where Khamzat will get tired, but he didn't even slow down. He slowed down DDP, he slowed him down, which was very impressive."

He continued:

"That's where he [du Plessis] finished me in Round 4 [at UFC 305], because I thought, 'I got him now', but he juts finds a way to get his third wind, fourth wind, but yeah, Khamzat made sure he didn't even get the first wind and just smothered him... [The score was] 50-44, that was crazy. Khamzat, [the] new middleweight champion, the division is in good hands."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.