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Coach Eugene Bareman has revealed that Israel Adesanya will never fight UFC Heavyweight Francis Ngannou since they are both close friends.
In a recent interview with Sirius XM, Eugene Bareman was asked if Israel Adesanya intended to move up to the Heavyweight division in the event of a win over Light Heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz, at UFC 259.
Coach Bareman revealed that moving up to challenge the Heavyweight Champion was a part of their quest to create history as long as Stipe Miocic retained his title against Francis Ngannou at UFC 260. Adesanya and The Predator hail from Africa and both fighters are vocal advocates of representing their motherland in the best possible way.
"I think I can answer this because it's beside the point, now that we lost. If we won the title then for me and our management team, we were gonna go all the way, we were gonna go up. It has got nothing to do with Jon Jones. He (Israel Adesanya) stated that he is too close to fight Francis Ngannou but if Miocic won, we were gonna go all the way up a hundred percent. We were gonna go from that title to the next title, winner of Miocic vs Ngannou... If we beat Blachowicz then we were gonna try and do what's never been done before, given that Miocic won," Eugene Bareman said.
Israel Adesanya challenged UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz for the title at UFC 259. The Last Stylebender put up a good effort but lost to the Polish Powerhouse via unanimous decision.
The loss has put a halt on Adesanya's plan of becoming a three-division champion. The Last Stylebender is still the king of the Middleweight division and he is hopeful of making a successful move to Light Heavyweight in the future.
Fighting Francis Ngannou is Blasphemous: Israel Adesanya
UFC has come a long way from its predominantly American origins. Israel Adesanya and Francis Ngannou, along with Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, have emerged as the first African-born top fighters of their respective divisions.
In an interview with YouTube channel 'It's Time For Sports' ahead of his fight against Jan Blachowicz, Israel Adesanya mentioned that having three African-born champions in UFC was iconic and he did not intend to spoil that situation. He said that it was blasphemous to challenge the fighters that he considers as brothers.
"Imagine when Francis gets that belt. Me, Kamaru and Francis, it's three African-born champions holding UFC belts currently, at the same time, that’s powerful. That image is powerful. That image itself is iconic and historical, and it would do a lot for the people from our continent. They've been taking a lot of gold from Africa. So it's good to bring it back to Africa, so yeah... (I will fight) no one that I consider a brother. I feel like it was slmost blasphemous,” Israel Adesanya said.
Adesanya's feeling of camaraderie is shared by Francis Ngannou. The Cameroonian lent his support to The Last Stylebender in a motivational tweet after Izzy fell short of capturing the second belt.
'Izzy is still the winner in my eyes. Well done Champ that was a great performance and tell you what, not many people would've taken this fight,' Francis NGannou tweeted.
Francis NGannou is slated to attempt a second shot at the Heavyweight title held by champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 PPV event scheduled to take place on March 27, 2021.
