Do you have some questions about MMA coach Eugene Bareman?
In this profile, we’ll look at who MMA coach Eugene Bareman is, the name of Eugene Bareman’s gym and the coaches he works with, Eugene Bareman’s fighters, and lastly the coaching and training methods leading to his success and becoming one of the best MMA coaches.
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Who Is MMA Coach Eugene Bareman?
Eugene Bareman is an MMA coach and former amateur kickboxer, muay Thai, Bjj, and professional MMA fighter. He was born on 26 August 1979 in West Auckland, New Zealand.
Eugene Bareman has had 48 fights during his career, 7 of which were professional MMA fights between 2007 and 2013 to the tune of a 4-3 record.
Eugene Bareman began martial arts with kickboxing while at law school, which he started because he wanted to get in shape for rugby.
After two years of law school, Eugene Bareman dropped out as he had a baby and needed to earn an income. With his passion for kickboxing, he decided to earn a living by fighting.
Now 22 years old, Eugene entered and won various amateur kickboxing tournaments around New Zealand. However, Eugene soon started MMA training because he realized he wouldn’t make it to the top level as a professional kickboxer and he needed another avenue.
After starting MMA, Eugene Bareman also started Bjj and won many amateur Bjj national championships. In 2019, after many years of training, he was promoted to a Bjj black belt by Andre Galvao.
What Is the Name of Eugene Bareman’s Gym?
As a way to make a living and continue his martial arts journey, Eugene Bareman founded City Kickboxing in 2007 and became the head trainer there before he’d even had his first professional MMA fight.
Eugene Bareman had already been coaching while fighting between 2002 and 2007 because he needed money and many fighters were asking him for help.
With a growing reputation and only 7 professional MMA fights between 2006 and 2013, Eugene Bareman retired his dreams of becoming an elite MMA fighter to focus 100% on his career as an MMA coach.
Nearly 16 years later, Eugene Bareman’s gym City Kickboxing is one of the best MMA gyms in the world and is home to many of the most elite MMA fighters across top promotions such as the UFC, Bellator, and ONE Championship.
City Kickboxing has kept its name for branding reasons and because Eugene Bareman is primarily a kickboxing/striking coach. It’s also because his partner and cofounder, Doug Viney, is a former K-1 kickboxing champion.
City Kickboxing runs 7 days a week and has public MMA, MMA wrestling (specific), kickboxing, muay Thai, Bjj, strength and conditioning, and boxing classes, as well as separate classes for the professionals.
Overall, Eugene Bareman’s gym, City Kickboxing, is one of the best gyms in MMA, even winning the 2022 MMA gym of the year Award.
Who Are the Coaches at City Kickboxing?
Some of the coaches working at City Kickboxing alongside Eugene Bareman are:
- Doug Viney: Kickboxing and boxing coach and cofounder
- Andrei Paulet: Wrestling coach
- Tristram Apikitoa: striking coach
- Glenn Sparv: MMA coach
- Joe Lopez: Head MMA coach
- Frank Hickman: Head Wrestling coach at TMT but also part-time coach at CKB
- Jahnis Bowden – Bjj coach
- Mike Angove – Former striking coach and now China UFC PI coach
- Chanel Niumata
Who Are Eugene Bareman’s Fighters?
As City Kickboxing is the most reputable MMA gym in New Zealand, Eugene Bareman’s fighters are the most elite UFC/MMA fighters from New Zealand and Australia.
In alphabetical order, here are Eugene Bareman’s MMA fighters.
- Aaron Tau
- Alexander Volkanovski
- Brad Riddell
- Cam Rowston
- Carlos Ulberg
- Dan Hooker
- Genah Fabian
- Israel Adesanya
- Kai Kara-France
- Kevin Jousset
- Mike Mathetha
- Navajo Stirling
- Rob Wilkinson
- Shane Young
- Tyson Pedro
Eugene Bareman also has some notable boxers:
- Baby Nansen
- Hemi Ahio
- Junior Fa
Eugene Bareman’s most notable fighters are the three UFC champions: Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya are undisputed UFC champions, while Kai Kara-France is a former interim UFC champion. He also has great UFC fighters, Dan Hooker, Carlos Ulberg, and Brad Riddell.
There are also many champions of smaller promotions in both MMA and kickboxing at City Kickboxing.
What Are Eugene Bareman’s Coaching & Training Methods? (Keys to Success)
Here are Eugene Bareman’s coaching, training, and methods for success as an MMA coach.
Striking/Kickboxing
First and foremost, Eugene Bareman is a striking coach, specifically skilled at coaching how to strike in MMA. With experience as a former kickboxer, muay Thai, Bjj, and professional MMA fighter, Eugene Bareman is skilled in various martial arts and has over two decades of experience as a coach.
It’s hard to come across MMA coaches with two decades of experience, seeing as the sport only started 30 years ago.
This experience and preference for striking can be seen in all of his fighters, especially Adesanya, Volkanovski, Riddell, and Hooker, who have elite kickboxing skills and look to keep fights standing and at range.
On top of this, Eugene Bareman is very passionate about the sport, dropping out of law school to pursue his passion for fighting and eventually coaching. This passion transfers to his fighters, as does his notorious work ethic, handed down to him by his father.
He works his fighters as hard as any coach in the sport and as hard as he works himself. Along the way, Eugene Bareman has constantly upskilled in order to become a complete MMA coach.
He’s also a man who favors a minimalist lifestyle, reflected in his no-nonsense coaching and how he enjoys hard work rather than things.
Long term relationships
Eugene Bareman likes to work with a fighter for many years and believes this is fundamental to a fighter’s success. Developing a deep understanding and connection between coach and fighter allows the fighter to get the best training they need from a coach who really cares for their success, not just the money.
Eugene Bareman finds out what drives his fighters, why they’re fighting, and what they’re going through in life both mentally and physically – tailoring his coaching to their answers and needs.
In this way, Eugene Bareman is more than a coach, he’s more like a mentor – and it clearly works because many of his fighters have been with him for the entirety of their career.
Management
Eugene Bareman believes success starts with a fundamental team of coaches, as it breeds great fighters, and those fighters bring other top-level fighters in and the level again rises – and he’s seen how this snowball effect has brought success to City Kickboxing.
He’s also managed the numbers and personalities of both coaches and fighters impressively. Too many top fighters and clashing personalities, and the morale drops, problems start arising, and fighters or coaches look to move on.
Eugene Bareman has always managed his gym so it’s family-like, disciplined, and dedicated to improving. He creates unity, togetherness, and reciprocity between all the fighters and coaches at City Kickboxing.
Even the stars like Adesanya and Volkanovski support the fighters who are early in their career and keeping a close group is a testament to Eugene Bareman’s management and coaching.
Eugene Bareman went a step further during the covid pandemic before UFC 253 on Fight Island, turning City Kickboxing into a dormitory and bubble where fighters trained, slept, and focused on fighting 24/7. This goes to show the level of dedication and care Eugene Bareman has for his fighters.
Eugene Bareman also likes to stack his fighters together on one UFC card because he believes it builds momentum from one fighter to the next, and they can be there to support each other win or lose.
Honesty and Openness
Another of Eugene Bareman’s qualities as an MMA coach is how honest he is with his fighters. He tells them when they’re not performing, becoming complacent, not listening to instructions, and what they’re not good at and need to improve.
Some may see this way of coaching as negative, but Eugene Bareman knows the key to the success of his fighters is brutal honesty and stripping their ego. He pushes fighters hard and doesn’t mind hurting their feelings or shouting if he feels he needs to.
Eugene Bareman also forms what he calls a think tank. Here, fighters and coaches share and bounce ideas among each other for questions or problems anyone in the gym may have (concerning the pros). This creates unity and gets everyone on the same wavelength.
Here’s a short Eugene Bareman interview where he talks about some of the things he does during fight camps.
Eugene Bareman’s Coaching Success
Eugene Bareman recently won his first MMA Coach of the Year Award in 2022, after being nominated several times over the years but marginally losing out.
His winning of the award is likely the culmination of the outstanding work that’s led to the success of fighters like Israel Adesanya, Kai Kara-France, and more recently Alexander Volkanovski becoming the #1 pound-for-pound UFC fighter and remaining so despite his close fought loss to Makhachev.
The Bottom Line
MMA Coach Eugene Bareman is one of the best in the business. He has roughly 2 decades of coaching experience as well as 7 years of professional fight experience, and he’s been the co-founder and head trainer of City Kickboxing since 2007.
All of this combined has seen Eugene Bareman create one of the best MMA gyms and teams in the sport, creating elite champions like Israel Adesanaya and Alexander Volkanovski, and other great fighters like Kai Kara-France and Dan Hooker.
