In September 2021, Israel Adesanya, the current UFC middleweight champion, made a statement that he will never fight in New Zealand again.
It is no secret that New Zealand’s government’s views towards MMA in their country don’t fancy Adesanya. However, he took this decision After getting frustrated over NZ police not allowing his teammate Dan Hooker to train for his fight.
Recently, the champ sat down with ESPN MMA’s Brett Okamoto to discuss his upcoming title defense fight against Robert Whittaker. While talking to Adesanya, Okamoto questioned the “not fighting in NZ” statement. Replying to which the Middleweight champion replied:
“For me, if it was me I have a built-in excuse. They don’t like me, they don’t like my attitude. The oligarchs over there whatever 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.”
However, this is not the only reason behind Adesanya’s harsh decision. He further added:
“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, get MIQ vouchers easily even the Indian cricket team got something like 170 rooms we can’t even get rooms to come back to our own country. So, that really pissed me off and even Dan got harassed by the cops over a dozen times. In the end, they were like if we catch you in the gym again we will arrest you.”
Adesanya believes the people associated with MMA are being treated unequally. That too when they are preparing to represent the country on an international stage. Hence, Adesanya believes he won’t mind giving all his fight revenues to Australia by fighting there.
Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker talk about his struggles in New Zealand during quarantine:
Hooker was scheduled to fight Narsat Haqparast at UFC 266. However, he was about to miss his fight due to visa troubles. Even though Hooker wore his country’s flag on his back after winning the fight at UFC 266, he didn’t hesitate to criticize NZ’s government COVID restrictions.
Speaking to The Schmozone Podcast he gave a bold statement saying: “My government’s, like, actively working to not let me train for a fight.”
Apart from the visa issues, Dan stated that he wasn’t even allowed to train for the UFC 266 fight inside his own empty gym. He said to Ariel Helwani on MMA hour:
“I train at City Kickboxing but I also own a gym. I own my own gym but I’m not allowed there. Under the lockdown, I’m not allowed at that gym even by myself under the New Zealand lockdown rules.”
Moreover, Adesanya and Hooker had to go through MIQ multiple times after fighting overseas and returning to New Zealand. Adesanya also complained that their government is being biased while dealing with some specific sports.