“I’d rather fight in Australia”- Israel Adesanya reveals what prompted his decision to never fight in New Zealand
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Israel Adesanya
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya says he is happy to give his fight revenue to Australia. The MMA community is not unknown by the fact that MMA fighters in New Zealand have to go through in order to keep training and fighting in promotions. Many instances have happened which have highlighted the things the fighters went through.
UFC lightweight, Dan Hooker once revealed that he and the members of his gym, CityKickboxing are forced to move out of New Zealand as it is getting very hard to train or to fly overseas to fight. Another incident happened when Hooker was not allowed to train in his own empty Gym due to the lockdown policy. Auckland police warned the fighter not to train at the gym as it violates the city’s restrictions.
Israel Adesanya on his difficult quarantine days in New Zealand
Ahead of UFC 271, Israel Adesanya sat down with Brett Okamoto of ESPN MMA for an interview. During the interview, the fighter discussed the problems professional MMA fighters face back home in New Zealand.
Izzy revealed that some of the powerful people in New Zealand don’t like him, his arrogance, and the way he carries himself. But Izzy was more furious about them treating Hooker the same way because he is a proud Kiwi and represents his country by carrying its flag every time. Adesanya shared the experience Hooker faced from the New Zealand officials while he was trying to travel for his fight.
While many other sports teams had no problems while going in and coming out of the country. Like the Indian cricket team who got 170 rooms to stay in while they tour New Zealand.
“they don’t like the fact that I don’t represent New Zealand well as a true humble kiwi whatever that means. So, I have a built-in excuse. But, what they did to Dan hooker. Dan Hooker rocks the country flag proud on his back, when he walks out he represents New Zealand and the fact that they did that to him while they were letting all these other teams go back and forth….the Indian cricket team got something like 170 rooms we can’t even get rooms to come back to our own country,” said Izzy.
Izzy explained that Hooker has faced a lot of threats from the cops and it is justified because all he did was to represent his country. He said “In the end, they were like if we catch you in the gym again we will arrest you. For what? For training for a fight to represent the country.“
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Soumya Ranjan
(2167 Articles Published)