Adesanya’s sorry about 9/11 remark
New Zealand UFC fighter Israel Adesanya has apologised for making a 9/11 joke at a press conference.
At a press conference in Auckland ahead of his upcoming title fight against Cuban Yoel Romero, Adesanya said his rival would ‘‘crumble like the Twin Towers’’.
He came under intense criticism for that but looked to make amends yesterday.
‘‘I never made a joke about people dying or made light of the tragic event that was 9/11,’’ Adesanya wrote on his Instagram Stories.
‘‘I was simply rambling and my brain worked faster than my mouth in a moment to [choose] the wrong euphemism.
‘‘You speak on the mic 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.’’
Press conference onlookers had reacted with boos, claps, cheers and jeers when Adesanya made the remarks, prompting him to say ‘‘too soon?’’.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, killing about 2600.
‘‘He’s a guy no-one wants to fight,’’ Adesanya said. ‘‘. . . I’ve seen him get rocked. I’ve seen him get stopped. I’ve seen him get bloodied. I’ve seen him cry. I’ll make him cry.
‘‘He’s human like anyone else, and everyone likes to make this myth about, ‘Oh, he’s steel, like kicking steel,’ or you hit him and he doesn’t fall.
‘‘I’ll touch him enough times and eventually he’ll crumble like the Twin Towers.’’ Earlier, Brazilian MMA fighter Paulo Costa called Adesanya’s comments ‘‘disgusting’’, in an angry response ‘‘How dare you make a joke disrespecting the thousands who died and the heroic firefighters and police. I will really kill you, dirty Kiwi.’’ Costa has fired up about Adesanya in the past. He suffered an injury to his left bicep in October, which ruled him out of fighting for the Kiwi’s middleweight title.
Costa defeated Romero in August.
But his feelings were shared by a number of supporters, who feel Adesanya was out of line for joking about the disaster.
Others considered his comments acceptable, though they appeared to be in the minority.
Adesanya this month won the sportsman of the year title at the Halberg Awards.
There he made an impassioned speech about New Zealand’s ‘‘tall poppy syndrome’’.
The 30-year-old UFC middleweight world champion urged Kiwis to get behind their sports stars, saying: ‘‘Understand this, if you see one of us shining – whether it be the netball team, the Black Caps, the sailors – pump them up, embrace them, because if they win, we win. If I win, you win.’’
Nigerian-born Adesanya has spoken before about his desire to take a fight back to Africa.