Most of the talk surrounding a potential superfight with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya includes light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but Adesanya’s head coach, Eugene Bareman, has his sights set on an even bigger move.
In a recent interview with “Submission Radio“, Bareman expressed serious interest in Adesanya moving to heavyweight and a potential fight with heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
“Fighting at heavyweight is not a problem for Israel,” Bareman said. “He’s not going to weigh heavyweight. That wouldn’t be what our advantage is. He would never weigh at what a heavyweight would (weigh). We’d fight at our walk-around weight, which is like barely past what the middleweight limit is. But Israel stated, and I think it’s a very good plan, he’s going to do his thing in the middleweight division. There’s some really tough challenges. He should clear those out. There’s at least three or four more good challenges. But three or four more fights for Israel is like, maybe within this year. So after that, what’s the next challenge?
“That’s the fight. I mean, I was half joking to get the attention off all this Jon Jones stuff, but that’s a serious – I’m making a claim there – serious stake. If Israel can get the business done at middleweight, and if he’s successful, he will definitely look to move and challenge Stipe. That’s a serious thing. But for us, we’re not paying immediate attention to it. There’s just so much that we have to put our concentration into now that it’s on the back burner. It’s in the back of our minds. So, yeah, let’s see if that hurries along Jon Jones.”
Moving up to heavyweight and fighting just north of the middleweight 185-pound weight limit would be an interesting and bold strategy, but Adesanya has always been someone who is up for a challenge.
Do you think a fight between Adesanya and Miocic would make sense in 2020 or 2021? Sound off in the comments section below with your thoughts.
