What Does Israel Adesanya’s Coach Predict For Paulo Costa Fight?

Israel Adesanya’s coach believes he knows how his fighter will get the job done against Paulo Costa.

Adesanya is scheduled to put his UFC Middleweight Championship on the line against Costa on September 26. The bout will take place on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. “The Last Stylebender” will be making his second title defense, while this will be Costa’s first crack at UFC gold. The title fight will headline UFC 253.

Appearing on Submission Radio, Adesanya’s coach Eugene Bareman discussed how he sees the fight with the 185-pound ruler and Costa playing out (h/t MMAJunkie.com).

“We can reflect back on a lot of Israel’s fights where he’s fought guys with big power and guys that were a lot more technically sound than Paulo Costa, but at the end of the day we haven’t fought Paulo Costa, and he seems to be a very powerful striker. And the part that you just never know until you’re in the cage, is how powerful this person is. Can Israel deflect his shots? Can Israel move out the way of his shots? That’s the part that we never really know until the opening 30 or 40 seconds, and that’s always the most nervous time.”

Bareman went on to say that he feels all Costa has to fall back on is his punching power. He feels this will ultimately doom the challenger.

“But I think Israel can mitigate his power, and what I think will happen is that (Costa) just doesn’t have enough diversity in his striking to stay with Israel during the fight, to stay on equal part with Israel. If you’re just relying on your power and you have nothing to back that up, there’s nothing behind it, there’s no other plan that you know intimately, then it’s just not gonna be enough, it’s not gonna be diverse enough to keep up with Israel.”