The middleweight champion has received significant backlash for his offensive video after hitting out at Kevin Holland by saying in a now-deleted Instagram post: “Bro, I will f***ing r3pe you.”
And the New Zealander has now been criticised by his own country’s deputy prime minister Grant Robertson, who has taken a dim view on his words and appeared to call on the UFC to take action against him.
“There is never a time to make flippant comments about r3pe. It’s just not something anybody should do.”
“I’m sure Israel understands that. I believe he has deleted the tweet in question. It will be up to the UFC as to what they do.
“But I would certainly be making clear to him, and to anybody actually, that we have to take r3pe seriously.
“It’s not an issue that anyone should be making jokes or flippant comments about at all.”
Adesanya, who was born in Nigeria but has been a New Zealand citizen since he was 10, did not respond to the comments directly but appeared unperturbed by the criticism.
He tweeted a gif alongside the words, “Incoming click bait NZ media in 3, 2, 1… This is what it’s all about…CLOUT!!”
This is not the first time the 31-year-old has landed himself in hot water for disrespectful comments.
Last February he had to issue an apology after saying his then-upcoming opponent Yoel Romero would ‘crumble like the twin towers’ against him and vowed to be ‘more careful with my words in the future’.
