UFC star Israel Adesanya pleads guilty to drink driving charge in New Zealand
UFC star Israel Adesanya has pleaded guilty to a drink driving charge in his home country of New Zealand after an incident towards the end of August.
The former world middleweight champion appeared in court on Sunday to plead guily, with a sentencing hearing set for January 10 of next year. And The New Zealand Herald reports that he was found to have 87 milligrams of alcohol in his system per 100ml of blood, over 1.5x the New Zealand legal limit of 50 milligrams per 100ml of blood.
It is alleged that the incident took place on August 19, with the fighter telling The New Zealand Herald in a statement “I want to apologise to the community, my family and my team for the decision I made to get behind the wheel after drinking at dinner.I was pulled over and gave an evidentiary blood test.
"The reading was 87 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.I am disappointed with my decision to drive. It was wrong. I know that people might follow me and I want them to know I do not think this behaviour is acceptable.”
Adesanya most recently fought on September 9 in Sydney against Sean Strickland, where he lost his middleweight belt for a second time after a dominant and surprising performance from the American. He was an heavy favourite, but never got going after being dropped in the first round and now must await his next moves in the octagon.
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He was a dominant champion for years before last November when he was dethroned by long-time kickboxing rival Alex Pereira at Madison Square Garden in his first defeat at 185lb. However, he quickly got that victory back by stopping the Brazilian at the fourth time of asking across disciplines.
Adesanya is one of the UFC's highest-paid and most famous stars, and likely will be granted an immediate rematch with Strickland should he so choose. But after unprecedented activity in recent years, some are calling for him to take a brief stint away from the octagon and focus on his life outside of the cage before making his return.
Strickland will now have a number of challengers atop the division, whom Adesanya has already beaten - many on more than one occasion. There is a chance that next month's Abu Dhabi headliner between Khamzat Chimaev and Paulo Costa could decide the top contender spot.
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