UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has been talking about leaving New Zealand for a long time now. He currently has big plans to move to a new country.
The Nigerian-New Zealand UFC fighter has been extremely unhappy with New Zealand after the way it handled COVID restrictions and specifically treated its MMA fighters. His gym City Kickboxing was forced to close and fighters were not allowed to leave their homes in order to train.
Currently, Israel Adesanya has multiple teammates stuck outside of the country as they are unable to get back in. This includes Dan Hooker who fought at UFC 267 in October.
The Daily Telegraph Australia reports that Israel Adesanya and his fellow UFC fighters have their next move planned out. They're joining Alex Volkanovski in Australia.
The move comes after their gyms have been cross-training for some time as Alex Volkanovski has come to New Zealand on multiple occasions to train with City Kickboxing. The UFC champion says things are not quite official but that is currently the plan.
“That’s definitely the talk,” UFC champion Volkanovski said.
“Nothing is set in concrete, and I can’t tell you they’re coming here next week. It all depends on how things go in New Zealand.
“If things start opening up, I’m sure they won’t go anywhere. But there are definitely talks (because) they can’t just sit around and wait.
“They can’t even get back into their own country right now so we’ve talked to them about (moving) and it’s definitely what they want to do if they keep having dramas.”
Israel Adesanya had been talking about moving to the USA but it appears the UFC champion will be going with Australia. It makes a lot of sense considering where they are geographically and who they train with.
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