Project Description

Straight Talk – Eugene Bareman

New Zealand produces an outsized number of incredible athletes and sportsmen (more often than not to the envy of us Aussies). We tend to think of these high-performing Kiwis playing Rugby or Cricket, but they’re also taking the world by storm in mixed martial arts.

Eugene Bareman is one of those high-performing Kiwis leading the New Zealand MMA scene onto the world stage. An MMA fighter himself, Eugene is best known as the owner of the City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, where he trains elite fighters such as UFC Champion Israel Adesanya, along with regular Aucklanders through his gym’s involvement in the Wimp2Warrior program.

Ahead of Israel Adesanya’s next fight against Polish fighter Jan Blachowicz in March, Eugene sat down virtually with Mark Bouris for this episode of Straight Talk. Eugene chats through the lessons from his upbringing, including how he teaches them to his fighters, why champions need to have absolute tunnel vision for their goals, and the value of being challenged and told you can’t do something.