City Kickboxing co-founder Eugene Bareman appeared recently on Submission Radio, and discussed a variety of topics, including his fighter UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. During his last title defense, a dismantling of Paulo Costa, The Last Stylebender had an odd swelling around his chest on one side, leading to largely ill-informed speculation that it must be the result of PED usage that had somehow escaped USADA’s notice. The coach is not impressed with the chatter.

I mean, in typical Kiwi fashion we just kinda laughed it off, said Bareman. Just cause we’re like so confident and we know that nothing could be further from the truth. So, like, when something is so outlandish, it kind of becomes funny. Cause, it’s just so outlandish it kind of takes on this comedy-type feel. So, I found it kind of funny. But it’s outrageous. I think It’s just outrageous. To be pretty honest, we’ve just laughed it off.

Bareman was asked directly how he knows Adesanya has never taken PEDs.

Just because of the ethics and morals that we have, explained the coach. I mean, not withstanding something maybe accidentally – and the chances of that are like slim to none as well because we’re so good at using the right approved supplements and stuff, like, it’s just never been a part of our ethics and morals at the gym. In fact, like you said, we’ve been very outspoken against it. It’s even funny that we’re even talking about it, because you said there’s an issue because obviously physically he has that anomaly on his chest, but for us, it kind of isn’t an issue. It’s just like, let’s just find out what that is and move on, and who’s the next fight.

I might get the results probably tomorrow. … The UFC has our bloods. The UFC has our… I think we did an MRI or ultrasound or one or the other, or both. We have those results to send to our physicians. The UFC has them as well. We just need to get to the bottom of what exactly it is, whether it’s low testosterone, whether it’s some other abnormality in the chest. We just have to get to the bottom of it, and we’re trying to, and we will have that in the next coming days, I think.

Bareman also discussed former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who has been engaged in bitter Twitter quarrels with Adesanya for many months.

I don’t know Jon Jones from a bar of soap, to be honest, said Bareman. There could be a side of him that just is insanely jealous that this new guy has come into the scene and is stealing a little bit of what he perceives as his thunder. There could be the fact that he’s just a really great businessman and he knows how to build fights and he knows how to make money and he’s aiming at long money, so it’s not necessarily a fight that’s in front of him now, he’s building a nest egg for him in a couple of years. It could be just that he’s a dick and that’s just his personality and that’s just the way it is. Honestly, it’s all speculation. But with Israel as set upon doing that fight, as long as he has the blessing of his team, his group of coaches, including me, he has got his heart set on doing that fight. It doesn’t matter where Jon Jones goes. If he goes to heavyweight, goes to light heavyweight, goes up and loses two fights, three fights, wins the next three fights, Israel has his heart set on that fight. So yeah, that fight’s gonna happen, I’m just not sure when.

The bickering between Jones and Israel descended recently. Jones questioned whether Israel’s father was confident that the younger Adesanya could beat Bones, and Adesanya told Jon Jones that his mother – who died in 2017 – would be disappointed at who he has become. The coach is not impressed, at all.

Bringing parents into it is like… I can’t vibe with this, to be honest, he said. I can’t vibe with this whole thing. That’s why I try to ignore it. Especially if you’re telling me they’re bringing parents into it. It’s like, I come from a different era where you couldn’t talk like that about your opponent. Because if you did, you’d never make it to the fight. You’d be having the fight before the actual fight, and there would never end up being an actual contest in the ring. That’s the era that I come from. I remember when YouTube started getting popular, I remember running into people and having to have words with them, and then it got to the stage where I couldn’t do that cause it’s just too many people. So, I just kind of knocked it all on the head. I was like, this is crazy.

I came from a place where if you say something on the internet, that’s just as good as you saying it to my face. For me, there was no distinguishable difference. But now there is, now the line’s been moved with these young guys. Like, the line has completely been moved. Where now it’s okay to do this and it’s ok to do that. But for me, I come from a different era. Like, to me, you can’t. Just, these guys, it’s too much for me. I don’t vibe with it, so I just stay out of it. So, it’s crazy. They shouldn’t be mentioning each other’s parents. But again, I don’t know where the line is, because in my day, you couldn’t do that, but nowadays you can. Like, these guys, their pride is different. Maybe they don’t have as much pride? The line is different. I’m just gonna stay out of it. I don’t know, they shouldn’t. They will one day – and I don’t know, but maybe one day they will regret talking about each other’s families. They shouldn’t be doing that, in my opinion.