Ex-UFC Champ Israel Adesanya Pleads Guilty to Drinking and Driving in New Zealand

Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has pleaded guilty to drinking and driving a few weeks before his most recent fight.

According to a report from the NZ Herald, Adesanya was charged with driving a car in Auckland, New Zealand, with 87 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood on Aug. 19. The legal limit in the country is 50 milligrams.

“I want to apologize to the community, my family and my team for the decision I made to get behind the wheel after drinking at dinner,” Adesanya said in a statement provided to the Herald.“I was pulled over and gave an evidentiary blood test — the reading was 87 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

“I am disappointed with my decision to drive, It was wrong,” he added. “I know that people might follow me and I want them to know I do not think this behavior is acceptable.”

Adesanya is due for sentencing on Jan. 10. The maximum penalty for the charge is three months in prison or a $4,500 fine. The fighter’s lawyer, Jim Trotter, said that he would seek a discharge without conviction at the sentencing.

Adesanya relinquished his middleweight belt to Sean Strickland in one of the year’s biggest upsets at UFC 293 in Sydney on Sept. 9. He gave his first interview since that defeat on his YouTube channel last week, revealing that the loss “felt like a bad dream.”