Israel Adesanya is one of the best fighters to ever come out of New Zealand, although there is no denying that there are many great talents from the country. Adesanya has a few teammates who train with him in New Zealand, including Alexander Volkanovski and Dan Hooker. These two fighters will be participating in UFC 266, and they have been hard at work preparing for what is in front of them.
Unfortunately, as Adesanya explained on his YouTube channel, both fighters have struggled to find a rhythm as Izzy's City Kickboxing gym has been the target of numerous shutdowns from the local New Zealand government. Adesanya believes this is truly unfair and as he claims below, the government doesn't like him because they are racist.
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“The constant effort to stifle, to break up, to disrupt our team City Kickboxing from helping team captain Dan ‘Hangman’ get ready for his fight, that pissed me off the most,” Adesanya explained. “If it was me, I already know, they don’t like me, the bureaucrats of this fucking country… also, they are racists, some of them are fucking racists, of course, they don’t want a black boy representing New Zealand but you’re doing this to Dan ‘Hangman’ Hooker… Dan drapes his country over his shoulders at the weigh-ins, on the walkout, he puts this country on his back.”
UFC 266 is set to go down on Saturday, September 25th, and fans are excited to see how it all goes down. Volkanovski will be in the main event against Brian Ortega, which should prove to be a fun bout. From there, Hooker will battle Nasrat Haqparast. Hopefully, for them, the government's interference won't prove to be costly in the Octagon.