Hot in the city

Without doubt, the number 1 fight gym in New Zealand is City Kickboxing. Based in Auckland, City Kickboxing has received a lot of success; in one UFC event, they had three fighters come away successful and they are also the home of the current interim middleweight UFC champion – Israel Adesanya. In terms of MMA success, City Kickboxing is light years ahead of other gyms in NZ.

The head MMA trainer at City Kickboxing is Eugene Bareman. Eugene was fighting in the era I was, you would often hear his name mentioned as he was a multiple NZ kickboxing champion in different weight divisions. Eugene has also competed in MMA and won multiple national titles in BJJ; the guy knows how to win and what it takes to get to the top level of the sport. Eugene has demonstrated his skills as a world-class trainer and his ability to breakdown a fighter’s strengths and weaknesses to earn victories for his fighters. He has shown that you don’t need to be based in the United States to have success in the UFC.

Doug Viney, one of their striking coaches, won the New Zealand K1 championship in his first attempt. He went on to have a very impressive career, boasting the K1 Las Vegas championship and representing Tonga in boxing at the Olympics as career highlights. I was fighting about the same time as Doug and thought we would end up in the ring against each other. While this scenario did end up eventuating, it wasn’t as I had expected it to. When I was training in Vegas, he was over there, and we did a few rounds of sparring. From that little taste of Viney’s ability, it was lucky I didn’t fight him for real. Doug was a level above me, and I learnt a lot from sparring him. The scary factor of it all though, was seeing Viney get beaten by Ray Sefo. Between the three of us, there were three different levels, and I was at the bottom. From that short time with Doug I was able to gain an insight into his fight brain and I was very impressed, so I can see why he is doing so well as a trainer.

Andrei Paulet is the wrestling coach and the former junior Romanian national wrestling champion. For those of you who don’t know, that is very impressive as Romanian’s like to wrestle. I have been lucky enough to do some training with Andrei and his wrestling is on another level. He always has another move to get you with, even if you think you have the upper hand, you soon find out that you don’t. As an instructor, Andrei manages to make things seem simple and can really break down a move/position so anyone can understand it.

Mike Angove is another one of their striking coaches. He has all the talent in the world with the ability to match anyone in the gym. However, when it came to fight time, the nerves would get the better of him and wouldn’t perform to the level of his true ability. Lockdown MMA was really lucky to have Mike as a visitor for a session and he lived up to his reputation and more. Mike was a great fighter with an even better attitude, he had no ego and sparred everyone at the right level. The most impressive thing about Mike is his fight brain – his fight computer is elite, and you get a glimpse of that when you hear his fight commentary on sky sport. The factor that all these coaches have in common is their humility. I have only spent a short amount of time with them but always had a laugh and picked up many valuable tips.

So, if you haven’t clicked yet, City Kickboxing has elite trainers. While they have additional coaches to the ones I have mentioned, these are the ones I have spent time with and know better. From what I can see, Eugene makes it a process for improvement and reaching targets throughout the fighters’ career. It is all mapped out and the fighter has all the information in front of them, so they know exactly where they need to be. They have produced many top fighters and from the looks of it, there are more on the way. The star of the gym at the moment is Israel Adesanya, who is the current UFC interim middleweight champion. Adesanya has a big fight coming up against Robert Whittaker for the undisputed UFC middleweight title. This is going to be a very tough fight to pick as they have contrasting but similar styles. They both have good stand up and the ability to put you to sleep. Whitaker is more power-based while Adesanya is slicker on the feet. Israel has the advantage on the feet as I think his striking is just a little more educated, but Whitaker has a better all-round game. However, I think his ego will dictate that it will stay standing. Whittaker seems to like to stand-and-bang, whereas the smart play against Adesanya is to smother him and get him to the ground (easier said than done). I have however, written off Whittaker a few times. I picked him to lose against Jacare and Romero, and both times, was proven wrong. Whittaker has shown the ability to find a way to win and Israel will have his hands full for this fight.

As a fight trainer, there can only be respect for what City Kickboxing has achieved. I can only think of one other fight gym in New Zealand that has produced a UFC fighter. City Kickboxing have 3 fighters in the UFC right now and one has a title – consequently, the level they have achieved is a thing to behold. They have great trainers and a great system for producing fighters. If you are a budding MMA fighter with aspirations of UFC glory then that would be the gym to train at. It is now the job of all the other fight gyms in NZ to catch up.    

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor