Israel Adesanya condemned by New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson for rape joke

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was condemned by New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson after making a rape joke.

Adesanya had made a comment on an Instagram story, suggesting that he would rape fellow UFC fighter Kevin Holland, who had recently criticized him for losing to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259. “Bro, I’ll f*cking rape you,” the now-deleted story read. Although Adesanya did delete the story, it was already widely viewed by that point, and “The Last Stylebender” has been getting criticized online for the comments. Not only are fans not happy about his comments, but neither is Robertson, NZ’s Deputy Prime Minister.

Roberson — who also serves as the Sports and Recreation Minister in New Zealand — was a guest on Radio New Zealand on Thursday and criticized Adesanya for his comments. Although the Prime Minister credited Adesanya for deleting his offensive social media post,  he also said that it was completely unacceptable. Adesanya has 4.6 million followers on his Instagram and the offensive comments were seen by many. Robertson is not happy about what Adesanya wrote and suggested that the UFC could potentially discipline Adesanya.

“I’m sure Israel understands that, I believe he has deleted the (post) in question. It will be up to the UFC as to what they do,” Robertson said on Radio New Zealand (via NewsHub).

“But I would certainly be making clear to him, and to anybody actually, that we have to take rape seriously. It’s not an issue that anyone should be making jokes or flippant comments about at all.”

Adesanya (20-1) is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 259 earlier this month. He is set to return back to the UFC middleweight division sometime later this year and defend his belt. So far we haven’t heard a comment from this UFC about this rape joke, but it’s clear that Adesanya went too far and crossed a line he shouldn’t have.

Do you think the UFC should discipline Israel Adesanya for his rape joke?