Adesanya v Imavov
UFC Fight Night
Main card starts 6am, Sunday 2 Feb
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New Zealand is making its mark on the global stage with the growth in MMA talent, Auckland trainer Eugene Bareman says.
Mount Eden's City Kickboxing Gym, which Bareman co-founded, has been home to the likes of Israel Adesanya, Carlos Ulberg, Dan Hooker, Kai Kara-France and Alexander Volkanovski.
Bareman says it was not only his efforts but the entire team of trainers and fighters that helped earn the 'Coach of the Year' and the 'Gym of the Year' titles by news website MMAJunkie and the World MMA Awards in the past several years. He was inducted into the New Zealand MMA Federation's hall of fame in December 2024.
Israel Adesanya, Eugene Bareman and Alexander Volkanovski. Photo:
The 45-year-old tells RNZ's TAHI podcast that the sport has grown "massively" in New Zealand since his start in 2006.
"I had an MMA fight in a bar, and they put black cellophane or black curtains on the windows so that we wouldn't get caught doing what we were doing.
"In a very short time, it's gone from a fringe sport that people didn't really know about, and they kind of looked with that old school mentality... into the mainstream.
"We know it's like a legitimate sport - Israel got Sportsman of the Year [Award in 2019] and then I got nominated for Halbergs [in 2019 for Coach of the Year] - that's alongside the mainstream sports that have been around for 100-150 years and then in a short kind of 10 to 15 years MMA is sitting alongside those sports."
As the gyms got bigger and better in New Zealand, so did his network, he says.
"It's just tough because we're just at the bottom of the world and we don't have the resources and stuff … and so then to kind of climb the ranks and get to be recognised as one of the best teams and gyms in the world is pretty cool considering like our size and where we come from."
His gym has also caught attention of fighters in the world of MMA, with Ukrainian Yaroslav Amosov also reportedly once remarking on its family-like atmosphere. Bareman says that culture has been built around the values of its Polynesian/Māori community.
"I think the same old rule still applies at the gym where to be an integral part of the team, like the fight team and stuff, you still have to come through someone... because then that way you always have someone to vouch for that person.
"Even if you get someone from the wrong side of the tracks, but he's a genuinely good person, when you surround that person with other good people... that environment just changes them."
MMA fighter Dan Hooker speaking about the Walking Without Fear Trust at a news conference in February 2022. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
City Kickboxing's stars, including Adesanya, Ulberg, and Kara-France, have been part of the team supporting the Walking Without Fear Trust, established in the wake of Liufau Tu'iha'angana Vake's death. The fellow fighter - known as Fau Vake - was left critically injured and subsequently died after he was punched from behind in central Auckland in 2021.
Bareman says they wanted to honour Fau and focus on steps to prevent violence.
"We piloted some really cool talks around coward punch awareness and prevention, and we've been to quite a few schools already, and it's been a real hit. It's been a success.
"You get Israel and Kai in front of 400-800 kids, everyone's paying attention because of who they are. But the more important thing is we're using those boys to get across our very important message, and it's just bringing awareness of that abhorrent crime and ways to influence your friends so that they don't go down the wrong path and perhaps become someone that considers something like that.
"Whenever we have a date to go and see a school, I get no hesitation at all from anybody who's involved, whether it be Israel, Dan, it doesn't matter who it is, Carlos.
"It does kind of like put you at ease a little bit as well. It's a chance to reflect back on Fau and his life ... if you have opportunities to do that, to spark that in your head and remind you of some better times with your friend, then why wouldn't you?"
Former UFC middleweight champion Adesanya will be going up against Nassourdine Imavov in Saudi Arabia on 2 February for his first non-title bout in six years this Saturday. Hooker will be going up against Justin Gaethje on 9 March in Las Vegas in March.
