Israel Adesanya details airport arrest following UFC title loss to Alex Pereira; ‘It’s crazy how life happens’
Things seemingly went from bad to worse for Israel Adesanya following his middleweight title loss against long-time foe Alex Pereira last year.
‘The Last Stylebender’ is once again sitting pretty as the promotion’s 185-pound king, but things were looking rather bleak for the charismatic New Zealander as 2022 came to a close. Shortly after relinquishing his title to Pereira in the UFC 281 main event, Adesanya was in the process of flying back home from Queens, NY, when he was arrested by airport security for carrying a pair of brass knuckles in his bag. Fortunately, Adesanya was only held for 45 minutes, and the weapons charge was eventually dismissed, allowing him to return to The Land of the Long White Cloud without further issue.
Appearing in-studio during a recent episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Israel Adesanya opened up about his brief experience behind bars.
“It’s crazy how life happens,” Adesanya said. “You lose the belt. You go to the airport, get arrested. … First thing I did when I got into the cell was meditate for about 15 minutes. [I was in the cell] for about 45 minutes. They were all, like, “What the f*ck? What are you doing here?’ People started coming like, ‘Oh sh*t, hey Israel. What happened? We’ll get you out of here as soon as possible.’
“That’s life. I like these experiences. Whether good or bad, it all happens for my benefit and my favor.”
With the UFC title loss still fresh in his mind, Adesanya used the opportunity during his detainment to meditate and center himself rather than letting the negativity get the best of him.
“I sit in the cell, and I see people’s graffiti on the wall, and I remember just thinking, ‘This is crazy,’” Adesanya said. “I was just fighting at Madison Square Garden literally a few days ago, and now I’m in a cell in the airport. So I was like, ‘Right.’ I sat there, and I just meditated, just to center myself again. From there it was, ‘Right. Cool. What are we going to do?’” (h/t MMA Fighting).
The Brass Knuckles That Landed Israel Adesanya in Jail Were a Gift from a Fan
As it turns out, the brass knuckles that Israel Adesanya was caught carrying were a gift from a fan. Looking back, ‘Stylebender’ sees the incident as nothing more than another unique life experience, but it has made him admittedly weary of taking gifts from his fans going forward.
“This is why now I don’t take gifts from fans,” Adesanya said. “Also, some people might be weird. They might put some juju or some weird things. But shoutout to fans, they’re cool, and I think once they started to see I was taking gifts, guys would bring, like, an old sweatshirt. I was, like, ‘This isn’t my camp, Puma,’ I just give it back. It’s an excuse.
“It is what it is. It was a cool experience, regardless. It’s just part of life stories now. I guess I got arrested and put in cuffs.”
His brief run-in with airport police last year wasn’t the first time Adesanya has found himself on the wrong side of the law. Speaking to Helwani, ‘Stylebender’ revealed that he got into a scuffle with multiple men in New Zealand in 2010, long before he became one of the UFC’s biggest names.
“[In] 2010, I had a fight. It was me versus four dudes in Burger King on Queen Street in Auckland,” Adesanya said. “He was harassing my friend’s girlfriend, and I just turned around and handled him, and then me and his friends, I handled them. … Never throw a kick in a street fight because then I slipped, and I got up, and I f*cked the other dude up. When the cops came and put me in cuffs, as they were walking me, I saw this guy with knuckle dusters actually try to hit me. I was telling the officers, ‘I didn’t start this.’
“I stopped, and he swung and missed, and I looked at the officer, and I was, like, ‘I told you.’ That’s why I don’t have a criminal record because they looked at the footage, and I was just defending myself, and I was defending my friend and his partner because of some idiots.
“But yeah, that’s the only time I’ve been arrested in America, and, knock on wood, that’s the last time I’ll be arrested in America or anywhere in the world.”
