Combat sports is one of the most lethal and life-threatening professions. Many times, fighters sustain injuries that they carry for life or even on rare occasions cost them their life. On top of that, the relationship between a fighter and their trainer is comparable to parenthood. Perhaps that is why Israel Adesanya revealed that his coach, Eugene Bareman thought of retiring upon losing his trainee, Willman Rodriguez.

The Stylebender last fought against ‘Poatan’, where he suffered a loss. He was not fine with the stoppage. The Kiwi fighter wanted the fight to continue and was not happy with the referee stopping the fight. Coach Bareman, was okay if the fight had gone on a little longer.

Furthermore, coach Bareman also has Dan Hooker, Shane Young & Brad Riddel under his wing. Perhaps that’s why even though his prodigy ‘Izzy’ lost the UFC title, he won the coach of the year award. In addition, City boxing gym won the gym of the year award at the 2022 World MMA awards. 

Israel Adesanya shares a heartbreaking story

One of Eugene Bareman’s trainees, Willman Rodriguez Gomez, died in his arms after sustaining an injury during his fight. ‘Izzy’ took the coach of the year award trophy on behalf of his coach.

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Moreover, he spoke about the influence coaches have on fighters and how Bareman almost gave up coaching. The loss of a trainee must have felt like a loss of a child.

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He said, “Everyone knows about Willman (Willman Rodriguez Gomez), rest in peace to my man Willman Rodriguez. He died in Eugene’s arms and Eugene was gonna like, quit the game.”

How Bareman’s coach stopped him from retiring

After the death of Gomez, Bareman was set to retire. However, his coach persuaded him not to. Israel Adesanya recalled the incident and shared it.

He said, ” His (Bareman’s) coach was the one that was like ‘well these boys are still gonna fight, is there anyone else you can trust to look after them other than yourself?’ And he was just like, boom lightbulb, paradigm shift.”

Bareman’s trainees need someone to look after them, and that was reason enough for him to neglect his retirement thoughts.

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