The information gathered by National Daily reveals that the 33-year-old Nigerian-New Zealander professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer, and former boxer who has multiple championships in all three disciplines coach Eugene Bareman lied about getting the UFC star a fight following his brutal kickboxing KO loss to Alex Pereira in 2017.

‘The Last Stylebender’ is poised to face arguably his biggest UFC middleweight title defence yet when he takes on former two-time kickboxing rival Pereira this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden headlining UFC 281.

Adesanya has already faced the Brazilian twice during his time in the professional kickboxing ranks, losing on both occasions in 2016 and 2017 with the second one seeing him knocked out cold for the first time National Daily can confirm.

Adesanya took time away from competitive fighting action before returning and going on a winning streak in MMA where he eventually signed for the UFC. And the 33-year-old’s coach Eugene Bareman insisted he rejected opportunities for his star to fight to serve as his own medical suspension for fighters.

“I would’ve given him close to a year, almost a year,” Bareman said during an interview on the MMA Hour when discussing the aftermath of Adesanya’s KO loss to Pereira. “And to be honest, I’ll admit there would’ve been times when I lied about getting him a fight. He would’ve come back after three; it’s been a long time, but three months, six months, he would ask for a fight.

“And I would’ve just said to him, I said, ‘Look, there’s no fight available right now. I can’t get you a fight. No one wants to fight you.’ And it would’ve been a bald-faced lie, but my lies had good intentions.”

‘Poatan’ has used his KO of Adesanya as a weapon to motivate himself to a UFC title shot since signing with the promotion. After just three successive wins, ‘Poatan’ has been declared as the challenger to Adesanya’s throne with huge expectations on his shoulders.