Eugene Bareman Is One Intense Man

That time I visited City Kickboxing in Auckland, New Zealand

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Earlier this year, I visited New Zealand for the second time, spending time on both the North and South islands. While I was on the North Island, I figured I would take the opportunity to pay a visit to City Kickboxing. Head coach Eugene Bareman was kind enough to take some time out of his day to speak to me before training began for the day inside the cozy (small) facility.

Remember when the East Coast of the US was getting hit with a record cold wave this past winter? Well, that’s when I was in New Zealand. It was a pleasant 80 degrees during most of the trip. That weather was beautiful for the vacation, but it wasn’t so fine as I made the two-mile hike up Queen Street to get to the gym.

Anyway, the interview I did with Bareman is below. The story ran at MMA Junkie in April ahead of Israel Adesanya’s UFC 236 interim middleweight title fight against Kelvin Gastelum.

Since this interview ran, City Kickboxing has moved to a new larger location.

On Saturday, in the main event of UFC 243, Adesanya faces middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in a title unification bout.

Later this week, I’ll add some more details about the interview that did not fit in the story.

Anyway, enjoy.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – When Eugene Bareman opened City Kickboxing, he had an inkling he could mold the folks who walked into his gym to become world-class combat sports athletes. He didn’t know how long it would take to accomplish that feat, but somewhere in his soul, he knew it could be done.

Now, 11 years after the gym first opened its doors, Bareman is coaching four fighters who compete in the UFC. One of those men is Israel Adesanya, who on Saturday faces Kelvin Gastelum for the interim middleweight title at UFC 236.

Talking to Bareman, it’s easy to see why he’s been successful. “Obsessed” might be too strong of a word to describe him, but “passionate”? Yeah, that fits Bareman to a T.

Bareman doesn’t have an office at City Kickboxing. Nearly every inch of the building’s space is occupied by workout facilities. His passion for his fighters is evident in the way he speaks about his approach to coaching.

“The system that we’re teaching is definitely a long game,” Bareman told MMA Junkie. “You can’t teach that in a short time. The benefit of what we teach in the system we use comes after two or three years. Then that (benefit) starts to appear.

“I tell every fighter that comes here and wants to do eight weeks, I tell them from the very start: ‘Look, the true benefit of what I can do and what this gym can do and our system happens in a long game, when you’re here for a year or two. I will help you as best I can. I will come out with as much strategy as I can, and I will come up with the best way for you to train what to apply, what I think you can get in eight weeks. What I think is a complete waste of time I’ll throw out.'”

In addition to Adesanya, Bareman routinely works with Dan Hooker, Kai Kara-France and Shane Young. Those four fighters have gone 11-1 in the UFC since the beginning of 2018. The gym’s most memorable night came in February at UFC 234, where France, Young and Adesanya all were victorious. Those triumphs included Adesanya’s “Fight of the Night” win over former middleweight champion Anderson Silva in the main event.

Bareman has been working with his small stable of UFC fighters for some time. He’s not sure about how long each has been under his guidance, but his best guess – with an apology for being unable to nail down exact dates – is that he’s been working with Adesanya for seven or eight years. Young and France have been under Bareman’s watchful eye for two or three years. Hooker’s tenure with the gym falls somewhere in the middle of the other three fighters.

It’s no accident that Bareman’s stable is finding success after a fair amount of time with City Kickboxing. Bareman knows his style is not suited for short camps because he’s tried that approach before. He and Hooker worked a condensed training schedule for Hooker’s 2015 bout against Yair Rodriguez. Hooker lost by decision, but it was that fight that made Bareman realize he needed time and commitment to properly prepare a fighter to reach the top of his game.

“I’m looking for people that want to be part of the system,” Bareman said. “I think the technical side of what we do is definitely something that can’t be learned quickly. It needs time, and there are no shortcuts.

“You will definitely find a correlation between the fighters that move from trainer to trainer to trainer and how successful they are, and the ones that tend to just stay with the same trainer for long periods of time.”

Bareman’s training technique is not the only thing that runs counter to many gyms these days. His approach to the outside world – he has no social media accounts and does not listen to much outside noise or criticism – allows him to focus on nothing other than training those who walk into City Kickboxing.

“You just have the four walls of the gym, and you just put yourself in that, and that’s it,” Bareman said. “You close your eyes, and you just live in the world of those four walls, and that breeds success.

“When you do that, you don’t let outside influence come in. You ignore what’s going on outside the walls. You just chuck yourself in, and you just stay in there, and your world kind of exists within those four walls. Keep doing that, and it’s a formula for success, and that’s what I’ve done.”

The bottom line on Bareman is that he’s focused on coaching – and only coaching. There’s no overblown ego or desire for the spotlight on himself.

“Maybe I won’t get another four UFC fighters,” Bareman said. “Maybe when these four drop off, I won’t have anyone underneath them, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. I will just keep working, and I will produce. I will just keep doing what I am doing, and then what happens happens.

“I don’t know. I’ve never really focused on that. I’ve just focused on being in here and doing the best job I can do, and then what’s happened is these guys have got good enough, some of them, to be the best fighters in the world.”

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“I’m sick of the high-hat!”

Oh, about that MMA manager that gave me the high-hat? It was Malki Kawa.

Speaking of the high-hat, if you haven’t seen “Miller’s Crossing,” see it.