City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman has acknowledged there was some sort of issue between star fighters Israel Adesanya and Carlos Ulberg, but the two men have since put it behind them and are now "fine".
Ulberg was on Saturday night [ET] crowned UFC light heavyweight champion following his stunning KO victory over Jirí Procházka at UFC 327, the Kiwi staving off a knee injury to land a devastating left hook that saw him become City Kickboxing's [CKB] second -- Alexander Volkanovski also has spent significant time training at CKB -- UFC champion.
There had however been reports of a rift between Ulberg and his teammate Adesanya leading up to the fight, a rumour amplified by the fact Adesanya did not post a reaction video of Ulberg's win to his Freestylebender YouTube channel.
But speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, Bareman revealed Adesanya had helped prepare Ulberg for his title fight, adding that fighter tension was a constant part of life in the gym.
"No [there is no issue], the boys trained together leading up to this camp," Bareman told Helwani. "They trained together leading up to Israel's fight.
"Man, look, in any gym, there's always going to be times when you're bumping heads with people. You know, I've had people sparring and training together, and they end up in a full blown fistfight. And then, you know, they don't dab up and make friends until two weeks later. You know what I mean? Like, we are not playing chess or checkers here, things happen as a physical and emotional sport.
"But yeah, the boys are all good. But the media and social media, they love to [feed it], they say what they want."
Bareman did, however, acknowledge that something might have occurred between the two fighters, but that it had not stopped either of them from going about their work at his Auckland gym.
"The boys are getting on fine, mate. Like all my fighters, like I just said, sometimes they're not getting along. But right now, they train together, and they were civil to each other through the camp.
"It seems like whatever had happened is, you know, behind them, we've moved on. I mean, I get that all the time, mate. But for whatever reason, social media has taken off [on] this one and it's just going to fly wherever it flies. But yeah, that's from the horse's mouth."
Bareman's comments come after Adesanya spoke fondly of Ulberg in the lead-up to his own fight last month, a TKO loss to American Joe Pyfer, with ESPN, giving little indication of a rift between himself and his teammate.
Asked to reflect on a personal story with Ulberg, Adesanya recalled a time the duo had spent six weeks in the United States through the COVID pandemic.
"At that time you had to use a f---ing what do you call it, like a lottery system to get back in the country [New Zealand]," Adesanya told ESPN. "So we had no idea, so we were stuck in America for a while, for about eight weeks, and then got back home, two weeks in the hotel, and then we were free.
"But those eight weeks were fun, crazy, good times to train, and yeah, just uncertainty with the world."
Bareman meanwhile indicated that Ulberg's knee injury might not be as serious as had previously been suggested.
"Just a scratch, mate. He'll be back, mate. he'll be back as soon as he can I reckon," Bareman told Helwani. "The way he was jumping around at that after party in Miami, I reckon it's just a scratch.
"We'll wait for a medical diagnosis obviously because I'm the furthest [from someone] that can make that qualification, but I'm not sure. But it's probably not as bad as everybody thinks."
Bareman also revealed that Ulberg had been affected by a staph infection leading up to his fight with Procházka.
"I'm going to say 'no', but he did have staph," Bareman said when asked if Ulberg had any pre-existing medical conditions ahead of the fight. "He had a staph infection earlier in the camp, which basically put that leg out of contention for a week or two."
The CKB boss also added that he didn't think it was related to the knee injury Ulberg suffered during his title triumph.