Former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, has been arrested for carrying brass knuckles through security and at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
The 33-year-old, who lost his title by TKO to Alex Pereira in New York last Saturday, was arrested by Port Authority police at the American Airlines terminal on Wednesday.
according to a report on Daily MailA spokesman for the Port Authority at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport confirmed the arrest, saying Adesanya was arrested for possession of “metal batons.”
Brass knuckles are a Class A misdemeanor in New York, and are also illegal to carry on an airplane. It is not clear where Adesanya allegedly kept the weapon.
UFC spokespeople have yet to react to the incident.
Adesanya’s loss has sent him down the pound-for-pound rankings, dropping from No. 2 to No. 8 on MMAfighting.com.
A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Adesanya is now a New Zealand citizen and currently resides in Auckland.
Long-time rivals Adesanya and Pereira went head-to-head in a UFC middleweight belt showdown on Saturday, with the latter emerging victorious after a brutal TKO at the end of the fight.
Although referee Marc Goddard called for an early end to the fight, Canadian fighter and trainer Firas Zahabi insisted Adesanya should be “grateful” for the decision.
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