Back in September, Former UFC lightweight champion Israel Adesanya exchanged heated words during an altercation with a driver in Auckland that almost led to a physical altercation.
Adesanya is well-known for his versatile style and showmanship in the octagon, but he is also a deadly person to contend with outside the cage. The fighter almost got into a fight with a motorist during a road rage, and the fighter escalated to a point where racist slurs were said. Speaking with FLAGRANT podcast, Adesanya disclosed that the motorist got extremely aggressive and even challenged him to a fight.
“Vibes was on, just chilling, and then this guy — I think because he saw my car — he doubled back and was like, ‘Izzy, one outs!’” Adesanya said. “In New Zealand, that’s like, you and me, one on one, let’s go. I started laughing, thinking like, ‘The f*ck?’ … I just kept on walking.
“The bit that pissed him off, he was at the green light, everyone was going around him, honking their horns like, ‘This f*cking guy,’ and I just grabbed my car door and [lifted it]. That pissed him off. So, he came in front of my car, and I said, ‘Bro, I’m not going to whoop your ass for free.’ …
“He pulled up and tried to talk all this trash to me. At one point, I even tried to defuse it because I was like, ‘Bro, I don’t know you.’ I said, ‘Bro, I fight for millions. I’m not going to knock your ass out for free.’ And he goes, ‘No, I fight for free. I fight for the streets and my pride.’ I was thinking, ‘You’re f*cking stupid.”
Luckily, the fight didn’t escalate to a physical level, and Adesanya only spat on the other party. The fighter admitted that a little part of him wanted the fight to blow up. In the end, he filed a formal complaint with the police instead.
“In the end, when I spat at him, I was hoping, ‘Try something,’” Adesanya said. “At the end you see me spit at him, and he just looks down, and I realized, you’re not going to do shit. … And I just realized if I drop this guy right now, they’re going to put me through the ringer. …
“If he spat back at me, then it’s on,” Adesanya added later. “But again, I’m glad I had a good day. I don’t like street fights. I don’t like confrontation, but if you bring the problem, I’m going to solve the problem.”
Adesanya’s last appearance in the octagon was at the UFC 305 where faced and lost to Dricus Du Plessis. Since then, the fighter has been eager to get back in the cage and has asked for a rematch with old rival Sean Strickland.
