Israel Adesanya made headlines a few months ago after a clip of him being involved in a ‘road rage’ incident was shared online. But on watching the actual clip, most were puzzled why it was being labeled road rage at all since there was no actual violence. The incident, as you may remember, was a pretty brief one and went viral on MMA internet. In the clip, ‘Izzy’ could be seen being confronted by a guy in a black hoodie and shorts.

It seemed like some heated words and rude gestures were exchanged before Adesanya got into his sports car and took off in a huff. Since the video was taken from afar, we couldn’t really tell what the two men said to each other.

Correction. We don’t know what they said to each other until now. Adesanya opened up about what exactly transpired between them in a recent interview with the Kiwi YouTubers ‘Our Yeah’ guys at a recent event.

“Funny story. I had a great training that morning and I went to this place on K Road, to go buy a pie. And then this c–t just pulls up and like ‘Izzy what else?’ And I was like ‘Eh.’ Then I kept on laughing at him ‘cuz he was holding up traffic. So I pulled my card door up, I looked at him, and I went inside. And he got angry. So then he tried to fight me,” Adesanya said.

“I’ll say this, look, all it took was for someone else to say “oi c–t, f–k off, don’t be a d***head, and everyone would have made him look stupid, he would have walked away. But everyone wanted to get that moment. I think that’s the bad part of society,” he added, referencing the regrettable fact that all the bystanders were trying to record the incident on their phone, perhaps hoping something bad would happen, rather than intervene.

“The one thing that kept me from taking his head was our Trust, the Walk Without Fear Foundation. Our slope was slanty, so if I had taken him out– bro, what happened to our brother is ridiculous. And those, you know, culprits are still walking around. If I did that, d’you think they would let me walk around? F–k no, they would throw the book at me,” he added.

So, in short, according to Adesanya, he got confronted, laughed off the interaction and drove away. However, to be fair, in the video, taken from afar as it was, one could see Adesanya was not laughing at any point during the interaction. In fact, the Kiwi-Nigerian superstar looked quite upset and angry during it. And for good reason.

Israel Adesanya claims he was racially abused by belligerent man who tried to start fight

Israel Adesanya claimed later that the belligerent guy had abused him racially during the heated incident. The man could also be seen gesturing to his groin, which lends credence to Adesanya’s claim that he was being challenged to a fight. It seems the guy was doing everything he could to get Adesanya to assault him, and then perhaps sue the former champ for some monetary compensation.

“I am extremely disappointed after an incident on Wednesday when a random member of the public stopped his car, racially abused me, and challenged me to a fight,” a statement from Adesanya to ‘New Zealand Herald’ in a statement. In fact, the former champ had claimed that his team had “been in contact with police” and promised that they “will be pressing charges.”

It seems like Adesanya decided against pressing charges. The other thing ‘Izzy’ touched upon was the trust run by his coach, Eugene Bareman. The Walk Without Fear Trust, which was founded after his teammate, Liufau ‘Fau’ Vake lost his life after he was sucker punched in an act of street violence. Having experienced the effects of street violence, Adesanya felt it wouldn’t be right if he contributed to it, even if he was being baited by the other guy to do so. What do you think about Israel Adesanya’s first-hand account of the infamous so-called ‘road rage’ incident?