Israel Adesanya had a change of tone this week amid heavy backlash of his threat to “rape” an opponent while talking trash.
The UFC middleweight champion issued a statement that his choice of words “crossed the line” and vowed to “be more selective with words under pressure.”
It all went down when middleweight contender Kevin Holland called Adesanya a “true loser” after Adesanya’s UFC 259 loss to Jan Blachowicz in a March 6 light heavyweight title bout.
Adesanya responded to Holland’s barb in a since-expired Instagram story declaring “Bro, I’ll f***ing rape you.”
Adesanya initially dismissed the backlash as “clickbait.”
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New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson condemned Adesanya’s rape comment in an interview with Radio New Zealand on Thursday.
“There is never a time to make flippant comments about rape,” Robertson said. “It’s just not something anybody should do. “I am sure Israel understands that. I believe he has deleted [the post] in question. It will be up to the UFC as to what they do. …
“It is not an issue that anyone should be making jokes or flippant comments about at all.”
Adesanya issued his statement that he “crossed the line” after Robertson’s comments.
