Israel Adesanya reveals his new ‘drastically changed’ training regime ahead of UFC Saudi Arabia

This coming February, Israel Adesanya will compete in his first non-title fight in six years when he takes on Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Saudi Arabia main event.

The February 1st main event announcement came somewhat as a surprise considering Israel Adesanya‘s reign as the UFC middleweight champion and the fact he is still one of the promotion’s big stars.

Despite that, Nassourdine Imavov has earned his shot at a big-name fight after three impressive wins in a row, and with a win over ‘The Last Stylebender’ he could put himself into the next middleweight title shot conversations.

Photo by Paul Kane/Getty ImagesIsrael Adesanya’s head coach teases ‘drastic changes’ to his fight campFollowing the Nigerian’s loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 305, fans were uncertain what Adesanya’s next step might be considering it’s the first time he’s suffered back-to-back losses in his MMA career.

But after the 35-year-old signed on the dotted line to fight ‘The Russian Sniper’, he is clearly not done when it comes to his quest back to the 185lb title.

And with that, his head coach Eugene Bareman has teased that Adesanya’s training regime will see some ‘drastic changes’ because of his recent performances.

“There are a few things I’m doing quite differently with Izzy for this fight. They’re a lot more drastic to what I’m usually accustomed to doing,” Bareman told Combat TV.

“I like to take things very steady and take a kind of if it’s not broke there’s no need to fix it (approach). But based on past performances I thought we needed to really just kind of flip things on its head a bit,” he continued.

BACKING: Former UFC star fires back at Khabib Nurmagomedov following surprising rant about Irish MMAFortunately for Bareman, the 35-year-old has responded well to the change in training regime and the team is hopeful that it will bring a return of prime Adesanya.

“He’s looking really, really good and responding really, really well to this slightly different approach, something that he hasn’t been used to for the last few camps… I’m looking for a very vintage performance from Israel and so far we’re right on track for that,” Bareman claimed.

Israel Adesanya reveals what his new training regime isAhead of his fight against ‘Stillknocks’, Adesanya claimed that it was the first time in his career that he has ‘lived like a proper athlete’, mentioning that he changed his diet and other basics in his life.

The change eluded to by Bareman, though, has to do with his training and now, the former middleweight champion has revealed what his new regime looks like.

“Another (training session) bites the dust,” Adesanya said in a recent video on his YouTube channel.

“Just working, man, to be honest, that’s how it should be but I like it where I’m at right now. (We start) with Alactic capacity and MMA work. Then I have wrasslin’ for about an hour and a half and then strength training and that’s me for the day.

“Oh no, wait, then Hyperbaric (therapy), then that’s me done for the day,” he said.

Following his loss to Du Plessis, fans criticized Adesanya for his lack of grappling ability after he was submitted by the South African.

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