Coach responds to PED accusations against Israel Adesanya

Coach Eugene Bareman has responded to the performance-enhancing drug use accusations against his star pupil, UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya.

Adesanya last fought at UFC 253 in late September, when he picked up a lopsided TKO win over the formerly unbeaten Paulo Costa. Regrettably, his victory came with a side dish of controversy, as fans noticed he was competing with a swollen right breast, which some viewers speculated could be a side effect of PED use.

Bareman, however, says that barring an unlikely accidental ingestion of a banned substance, there’s no way that’s the cause of Adesanya’s swollen right breast.

“I think it’s just outrageous,” Bareman told Submission Radio, addressing the accusations against Adesanya. “To be pretty honest, we’ve just laughed it off. Like, it’s just – 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.”

Adesanya is currently undergoing testing for this issue, and Bareman is optimistic their team will have answers soon.

“I might get the results probably tomorrow, cause I think it’s Sunday over in America,” Bareman said, updating on the tests Adesanya undertook. “The UFC has our bloods. 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.”

With his win over Paulo Costa, Israel Adesanya is now targeting a fight with Jared Cannonier, provided the streaking middleweight contender gets by Robert Whittaker at UFC 254. That being said, he’s also teased an imminent move up to the light heavyweight division.