Adesanya releases statement on ‘racially abusive’ street confrontation

Israel Adesanya is speaking out over a viral road rage incident captured on camera that he says was a racist attack.

Footage showed up on Thursday showing “The Last Stylebender” and an unidentified man yelling at each other in the streets of Auckland, New Zealand. Expletives were shared, spit may or may not have been sput, and it looked like a fight might break out at any minute.

Friends close to Adesanya told TMZ that the former UFC middleweight champion was parking his car when the guy came up “out of nowhere and started calling him the N-word.” Now Adesanya is sharing the story himself in a statement given to New Zealand news outlets.

“I am extremely disappointed after an incident on Wednesday when a random member of the public stopped his car, racially abused me, and challenged me to a fight,” the statement from Adesanya read. “We have been in contact with police and will be pressing charges.”

“On Wednesday morning, I was leaving a cafe on Karangahape Road when a passing car slowed, and an occupant began yelling racial abuse and challenging me to fight.”

“I smiled, waved it off, and continued to my car. The vehicle stopped, and the abuse continued. I again waved it off. The car then parked, and the passenger got out, approached me aggressively, continued his torrent of abuse, and demanded I fight him. I tried to de-escalate the situation repeatedly. As he got closer, I asked bystanders to call the police.”

“He then entered my personal space, and I felt threatened. To protect myself, I became more forceful in my language and defensive. Though he paused, the abuse continued, so I left him with some choice words, cautiously moved to my car, and drove away.”

“It’s ridiculous that I can’t buy a pie after training without some idiot screaming despicable things and asking for a fight while his mates film from the sidelines. Threatening violence is no joke. It’s very dangerous, and incidents like this must not be glorified online. I hope in the future people say something rather than get their phones out to film.”

Adesanya has a somewhat complicated relationship with his chosen home country of New Zealand. He has accused local media of ignoring him at best and actively sabotaging him at worst. During the pandemic, carve-outs were made in lockdown laws to allow rugby players to train, but not MMA fighters. And in 2021 Izzy called on the government to pass new laws harshly punishing ‘coward punching’ or sucker punching after a teammate was killed outside of a local MMA event.

Now we’ll see whether the local authorities do anything to protect him from dopes looking to harass him for social media views. This dummy walked away with his crocs still firmly attached to his feet. The next one might end up in the hospital.