Israel Adesanya, a former UFC middleweight champion, was reportedly arrested for bringing brass knuckles through security at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
The 33-year-old lost his title to Alex Pereira by TKO in New York last Saturday. On Wednesday, he was arrested in the American Airlines terminal by Port Authority police.
A spokesperson for the Port Authority at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport told the Daily Mail that the arrest was true and that Adesanya was booked for having “metal knuckles.”
In New York, having brass knuckles is a Class A misdemeanor, and you can’t bring them on an airplane. It is not clear where Adesanya is said to have kept the gun.
The UFC hasn’t said anything about what happened yet.
After Adesanya’s loss, he fell from No. 2 to No. 8 in the pound-for-pound rankings on MMAfighting.com.
Adesanya was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He now lives in Auckland and is a citizen of New Zealand.
Adesanya and Pereira have been fighting each other for a long time. On Saturday, they fought for the UFC middleweight belt. Pereira won after a brutal TKO stoppage late in the fight.
Even though it was said that referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight too soon, Canadian fighter and trainer Firas Zahabi says that Adesanya should be “grateful” for the decision.
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