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Eugene Bareman, the head coach of Israel Adesanya and City Kickboxing, gave his thoughts on the UFC debut of 'Blood Diamond'.
Mike Mathetha, better known as 'Blood Diamond', was being built up as the next big thing by many of those within his team. His first appearance in the big time came last Saturday when he went toe-to-toe with Jeremiah Wells on the UFC 271 early prelims. Unfortunately, it didn't quite go to plan as he fell to a submission defeat at the end of the first round.
Bareman knows better than anyone what Mathena's capable of. During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, he spoke candidly about what went down, saying:
“I’m very, very, very, disappointed, and 'Blood' is even more disappointed. It’s been a very emotional couple of days for 'Blood Diamond'. When you lose like that, and I’ve had a few fighters who have lost like that, Dan Hooker has lost like that, when you just get caught early and you don’t get a chance to show the people and the world what you’re capable of. It’s heart wrenching, it’s really heart wrenching."
He added:
"But look, that sometimes happens, and we all know 'Blood Diamond' is a world class fighter. A similar thing happened to Ulberg, he just has to come back and prove it. He has to prove it to the world, he has to prove it to the UFC and he has to prove it to Sean Shelby that he deserves to be where he is.”
Watch Eugene Bareman's interview on The MMA Hour below:
'Blood Diamond's' professional record dropped to 3-1 following his submission loss at UFC 271. Carlos Ulberg, his teammate, suffered a similar fate in his UFC debut last year. Ulberg managed to bounce back and register his first win in the UFC at UFC 271 with a unanimous decision victory over Fabio Cherant.
'Blood Diamond' will be looking to do the same in his next bout.
Israel Adesanya recorded his fourth title defense at UFC 271
Israel Adesanya successfully defended his middleweight title against Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 in Houston, Texas. This was 'The Last Stylebender's' fourth title defense and he's almost cleaned out the top five in the middleweight rankings.
The closely-fought affair wound up going to the scorecards, with Adesanya just about managing to edge out a unanimous decision win. Some have suggested that Whittaker did enough to get the nod. Meanwhile, others believe it was yet another professional and composed display from the champion.
Either way, it seems as if Jared Cannonier is the next man on the horizon for Israel Adesanya. 'The Killa Gorilla' knocked out Derek Brunson at UFC 271 to stake his claim as the next contender.
