Israel Adesanya addresses viral road rage incident: ‘If you bring the problem, I’m going to solve the problem’
Israel Adesanya gave us some more details about almost coming to blows in a road rage incident earlier this year.
Back in September, Adesanya was involved in a road rage incident that nearly saw the former UFC middleweight champion get into an altercation with a fellow motorist. Per Adesanya, a member of the public caught him out and made racially charged comments before challenging him to a fight. Fortunately, the most that happened was Adesanya spitting on the other party, and afterwards “The Last Stylebender” filed a formal complaint with the police.
Nothing much seems to have come of the formal report, but this week Adesanya revealed a bit more about the incident when speaking with FLAGRANT podcast.
“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 and 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.”
The incident continued to unfold from there and Adesanya admits that near the end of it, he was hoping the individual would give him a reason to also fight for free.
“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 didn’t have to solve the problem as things didn’t escalate beyond the spitting incident. And according to Adesanya, the man who accosted him is lucky he’s so restrained, because the former middleweight champion thinks there are a few teammates of his who might not have handled things the same way.
“Do that to Dan Hooker,” Adesanysa said. “Dan’s a beast and Dan would probably act differently. Maybe not knock him out but put him to sleep, hang him out.”
Adesanya most recently competed at UFC 305 back in August where he was submitted by Dricus du Plessis in their middleweight title fight.