It’s been a rough week for the Nigerian-New Zealander Israel Adesanya. After losing the title to Alex Pereira on Saturday, he gets arrested on Tuesday at JFK.
From Champ To Misdemeanor
A former champion in mixed martial arts, boxing, and kickboxing, there wasn’t much of a fight to put up at JFK airport when authorities stepped in. As he was putting his bag through security, alarms went off as he had brass knuckles. Brass knuckles are illegal in the state of New York, (yeah go figure!) and to be caught in possession of them is a class A misdemeanor. You shouldn’t have them on your person or your carry-on bag.
Adesanya Cooperates
“The arrest was made by the Port Authority Police Department near the TSA screening area … near the American Airlines terminal around 1:57 PM,” according to TMZ.
In a statement from Adesanya’s manager Tim Simpson, he cooperated with the police right away, “Israel was handed a gift by a fan, which he put in his luggage. When flagged at the airport, Israel quickly disposed of the item, and cooperated with authorities.”
Adesanya was escorted out of the terminal under arrest. Fortunately, he was only issued a desk appearance ticket and is required to show up to court in December.