Adesanya's trainer wants him to fight Hill, du Plessis also interested

The head coach of Israel Adesanya technical team Eugene Bareman, thinks a matchup against Jamahal Hill makes sense for his pupil’s next fight.

In the main event of UFC 287, Adesanya reclaimed his middleweight title with a second-round KO win over Alex Pereira.

After the fight, Adesanya said he was done with Pereira as he wanted a fresh matchup, which his coach agrees with.

Although Adesanya thought of potential middleweight challengers, Bareman is eyeing a fight against the light heavyweight champ, Jamahal Hill.

Of course, Adesanya moved up to 205lbs to take on Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight belt in a fight he lost by decision so Bareman is hopeful his pupil can become a champ-champ.

“At light heavyweight? Let’s do it, let’s do it… Every fighter that you fight with flaws, and it’s up to the opponent and the team to take advantage of them. Jamahal Hill, I’m not being disrespectful, I haven’t seen him fight yet, I don’t think,” Bareman said to Submission Radio Adesanya.

 “But I don’t watch the fights, I just watch my guys fight. I don’t watch UFC fights. I watch my guys fight generally and that’s it. I’m sure he’s a very tough champ. If you’re a world champion, you’re the best of the best. I’m sure he’s a very tough fight. I’ve seen him at the after party, I’m sure he’s a nice fella. But it’s not about that, it’s about challenges, mate. When you get to this level it’s about challenges. Let’s do it. Get it done, get it done, boys.”

Currently, Jamahal Hill does not have his first title defense booked as he is waiting to see when Jiri Prochazka will be able to fight from his injury. But, perhaps if he is out longer than expected, then maybe the UFC looks to make this scrap between Adesanya and Hill.

Meanwhile, the new two-time UFC Middleweight Champion was in a passionate mood following his decisive knockout victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287.

Following his victory he took a shot at South African contender du Plessis for comments he made a month ago.

Speaking at the UFC 285 media say, du Plessis questioned whether the championship belts truly went to Africa under Kamaru Usman, Francis Ngannou and Adesanya's reigns.

And that certainly didn’t sit well with The Last Stylebender, who didn’t name du Plessis directly, but claimed he would ‘gladly drag his carcass across South Africa’.

Unsurprisingly, Stillknocks wasn’t going to take that shot lying down.

He told The MMA Hour: “For him saying that, does he think I’m scared of him?

“I am not scared of that man? The fact that he put some threats out there, obviously he’s forgotten, because I don’t take kindly to threats.

“Over here, it doesn’t work like that. If you want to make threats, come and show me. Come and show me how you drag my carcass around. I would love to see you try.”

The 29-year-old also had the perfect plan for a string of fights.

He continued: “And like I said in that message: UFC Africa is far away from being done. It’s probably going to happen next year. I don’t want to wait that long.

“I will beat him this year, and after that fight, if he still feels like he has all this power over me and he’s trying to intimidate me, that’s good. Then come to Africa next year, and we’ll fight for the belt in a rematch where I’m the champion.

“Because that fight’s not happening this year, and he does not scare me. Not one little bit.”

The beef stems form the fact that Adesanya, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria and lived in Ghana before moving to New Zealand at 10-years-old, didn’t take kindly to the assessment of his nationality.

However, Dricus also took time to explain his comments and try to clear up some confusion.

He said; “I never said those words. Not even close to. I simply stated the fact that I am the only — if I’m wrong, I will say sorry immediately. Do one of them reside in Africa? I did not even mention this toward them.

“I did not talk about them, I talked about myself. I was not aiming anything at them, I was aiming something at myself. That I will be the first champion that resides in Africa, that will take his belt home to Africa.

“I never said they weren’t African, or I was more African. Of course, they’re African, and I respect them a whole lot.

“Usman is one of the greatest to ever do it. Adesanya is one of the greatest middleweights to ever walk this Earth. I never took anything away from them, in that aspect.

“The only thing I said is I’m still residing in Africa, and I will bring my belt back home, to Africa, which is where I reside.

“If we are sending out post codes and addresses, mine’s going to be in Africa, and that’s the facts of the matter.”