Israel Adesanya enters his bid to reclaim his middleweight crown from Alex Pereira in their rematch at UFC 287 on Sunday (NZ time) in a peculiar predicament.
The Kiwi-Nigerian's has had to watch Pererira's hand being raised the last three times the pair have squared off, most recently at Madison Square Garden, when Pereira flicked a switch late to claim a clutch technical knockout win in the dying stages of their championship main event in November.
That followed their match-up under the Glory Kickboxing banner, when Adesanya suffered the only knockout defeat of his career in a clip that has been replayed ad nauseum in the build up to their first UFC meeting.
But while the record may read 3-0 Pereira, Adesanya has comfortably won the majority of the minutes the two have shared both inside a ring and an Octagon.
Their first fight was a highly contentious decision that went Pereira's way. Adesanya was cruising in their second showdown before getting caught, and arguably won all four rounds of their main event in New York City.
As far as Eugene Bareman - Adesanya's long-time mentor and lead trainer at his base in Auckland's City Kickboxing - his star pupil clearly has the formula to overcome Pereira.
This time around, Bareman has put the emphasis during their pre-fight camp on supreme, unadulterated concentration for the entire bout.
"That's the overriding theme that we've really pushed throughout the camp is that we need to actually put focus for the entire 25 minutes," Bareman told Newshub.
"We need absolute focus regardless of what sort of physical and even mental fatigue we're going through. We need him to find a spot in his head where that focus just becomes undeniable.
"It doesn't matter how fatigued a game might get or how much physical trauma is going through. The important thing is that he remains very focused on what he's doing."
Pereira's fighter nickname of Poatan translates from Portuguese as 'Hands of Stone', a fitting moniker which doesn't require any further explanation.
The 35-year-old is a relative newcomer to mixed martial arts but much like his fellow kickboxing convert Adesanya did four years ago, has taken the sport by storm.
Since his debut in November 2021, he's finished three of his four contests - all of which have earned him performance of the night awards, and his most recent against Adesanya, the UFC middleweight title, capping a dizzying rise to the top.
Bareman admits Pereira's rare package of power, an uncanny ability to absorb punishment, and an "unconventional" style makes him a difficult puzzle to solve.
But it's his freakish natural ability to render an opponent unconscious at any given moment that Bareman says makes Pereira one of the most challenging fighters they've faced - a genetic "gift" that he puts on par with some of combat sports' most celebrated power punchers.
"He brings something very unique. It's a little bit of a one or two dimensional problem, but it's a problem that no other fighter really brings," he explains.
"In your career, you will only face one, maybe two, guys that are born with this very unique ability to switch someone's lights off.
"You're born with it. Many, many trainers and coaches will sit, sit and argue whether you're born with it or whether it can be something that can be developed over time. But I'm in the school that you're born with it, and it's a special gift. You might have 50 fights and you might not fight someone with Alex Pereira's gift.
"If you can go through your career and fight a Mike Tyson or George Foreman, a Ron Lyle, a Deontay Wilder… I think that's the ultimate.
"It's one of the ultimate challenges in combat sports to face someone like that who for the entire time, from bell to bell, you've got to be absolutely on your toes."
Those factors are what will make this test one of the most mentally demanding of Adesanya's glittering career to date. Rivalries often bring out the best in a fighter, and this is the first time in his six-year UFC tenure he's had a bonafide foil.
Behind the deity that is Brazilian Anderson Silva, 'The Last Stylebender' has already established himself as the second greatest middleweight of all time.
Defeat to Pereira wouldn't necessarily dampen that position, but adding another world title to his sparkling list of accolades by exorcising those demons would add even more weight to his legacy.
And while his opponent may have the upperhand in the power stakes, Adesanya's more nuanced and technical striking means he still has the edge in the stand-up department, while he's also proven a much more effective grappler than his nemesis.
That versatility - combined with his wealth of experience inside the Octagon in high-takes fights - is what Bareman believes will help his fighter seize back his belt in Miami this weekend.
Despite the result last time out, he and his coaching team - with the benefit of having seen them both in action under MMA rules - now have what they're confident is a blueprint for victory.
But given the razor close margins, Bareman sees the outcome being decided by who's able to be the most clinical with their execution, expecting Pereira to be much more aggressive from the outset.
"You're talking about two of the best stand up fighters in the world who have made their way into MMA and into the UFC. You're going to see that at the highest level.
"It's not about seeing them perform at 100 percent. It's about how many mistakes each one of those guys is willing to make, because each mistake that each guy makes, they'll make each other pay for making those mistakes. It'll come down to who makes the least mistakes.
"But [Adesanya] is a little bit more moulded, a little bit more multifaceted. He can take the sport into more areas where he will have an advantage."
But for all of the talk of techniques and gameplans, this contest will hinge hugely on mindset.
In the build-up to the fight, Adesanya has spoken of the different mindset he's taking into this fight, realising this will likely be his last shot at avenging his defeats against Pereira. If he can't get it done this time around, UFC history dictates he won't get another opportunity.
One of the most prominent narratives leading into this bout is the mental roadblock Adesanya needs to overcome. Losing three straight contests to an opponent in any sport hurts, but it takes on a whole new definition in the world of combat.
So, is Pereira really "inside" Adesanya's head?
Obviously there's no way to prove that, but Bareman calls such suggestions "ridiculous".
He has no concerns about his fighters ability to put past results on the side and perform at his peak, calling him unreservedly the mentally toughest fighter on the UFC roster.
"That man's body will fall apart and disintegrate around him before his mind does," he said.
"That's the strongest mind in the sport, period. I don't care who you want to check in there.
"You can chuck people like [Michael] Chandler and Justin Gaethje around. But the strongest mind in the sport is that man there."
Adesanya will need every inch of that strength if he's to finally have his hand raised against his nemesis this weekend.
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