New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Reprimands Israel Adesanya Amid Deleted Rape Comment

Mandatory Credit: Zuffa LLC

New Zealand's deputy Prime Minister, Grant Robertson has condemned UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya after the 31-year-old made a since-deleted comment on an Instagram story in which he claimed he'd "rape" middleweight contender, Kevin Holland. 

In the video, posted on Adesanya's official Instagram account which currently has 4.6 million followers, Adesanya responded to recent insults from Holland, following his UFC 259 light heavyweight championship challenge loss to Jan Blachowicz at the beginning of March. In response to Holland, Adesanya said, "Bro, I'll f*cking rape you.".

Drawing major criticism amid the deleting of the video, the post drew comments from Grant Robertson, who is the deputy Prime Minister and Minister for sport in New Zealand.

"We have to take rape seriously, it's not an issue that anyone should be making jokes or flippant comments about at all," Robertson said during an interview with Radio New Zealand. "I'm sure Israel (Adesanya) understands that, I believe he has deleted the tweet (sic) in question. It will be up to the UFC as to what they do."

Whilst not directly commenting on the issue, Adesanya took to his official Twitter account, which currently has 860,000 followers, posting the following: "Incoming clickbait NZ (New Zealand) media in three, two, one... This is what it's all about... CLOUT!!"

 

This is what it’s all about...CLOUT!! pic.twitter.com/GhWhPD6rPN

— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) March 24, 2021

Adesanya previously apologized for a distasteful comment alluding to the September 11th. 2001 terror attacks ahead of his middleweight championship defence against current Bellator light heavyweight, Yoel Romero last March, claiming he'd make the Cuban Olympian "crumble like the Twin Towers".

"You speak on the mic (microphone) enough times and you're bound to miss the mark with some bars... I did on this one and for that I'm sorry. I'll be more careful in (the) future with my words," Adesanya said.

Expected to return to the middleweight division ahead of his Octagon return, Adesanya most recently featured at the weight-class in the second defence of his middleweight championship last September on 'Fight Island' at UFC 253, stopping the then-undefeated, Paulo Costa with a second round knockout.

As of writing, the UFC have yet to comment on the situation, and it's currently unknown if the Nigerian-Kiwi will be disciplined for his comments.