Well, here’s some news. Former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, has managed to dodge a conviction. The case was about a drunk driving incident that took place last August. The New Zealand Herald reported this.
The hearing took place in Auckland, New Zealand. Judge Peter Winter was the one calling the shots. He ordered Adesanya to donate $1,500 to charity. Plus, he’s not allowed to drive for six months. And, he has to enroll in a stop drunk driving program before the year ends.
Judge Winter had a bit of a heart-to-heart with Adesanya in court. He told him, “I’m sure you have learned from this. You wouldn’t want to be in this position again, as you realize.”
So, what was Adesanya charged with? He was driving a car in Auckland on Aug. 19 with 87 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. Yikes. The legal limit in the country is 50 milligrams. The UFC star was looking at a maximum penalty of three months in prison or a $4,500 fine.
But Adesanya was granted a discharge without conviction. His lawyer, Karl Trotter, argued that such charges could seriously affect the end of his client’s fighting career. He even presented a case demonstrating that Adesanya could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsements if convicted. Adesanya is also expected to appear at UFC 297 in Toronto for promotional purposes.
Trotter said, “The adverse consequences should my client be convicted are monumental — that’s not exaggerating the situation. He realizes he is in jeopardy.”
However, not everyone was on board. Police prosecutor Samara Wakefield opposed the discharge without conviction. She downplayed the potential consequences for Adesanya as “speculative at best,” according to the report. But the court sided with Adesanya’s team. Judge Winter agreed that the fighter’s “career window in this sport is limited in duration.”
At the end of the hearing, Adesanya thanked the judge. The incident happened a few weeks before his last title defense at UFC 293. There, he suffered an upset loss to Sean Strickland. While “The Last Stylebender” initially claimed that he planned to take an extended hiatus from the sport, he has since stated that he plans to return to action sometime in 2024.