UFC: Israel Adesanya gives emotional speech about death of George Floyd at Black Lives Matter rally in New Zealand

Israel Adesanya issued an emotional public speech at Black Lives Matter rally at the US embassy in his native Auckland, New Zealand on Monday.

The UFC middleweight champion (19-0), who had throughout the week voiced his displeasure at the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minnesota in May, said he was “p****d off” and “sick and tired” of seeing the allegedly racially charged deaths.

“[I have a] platform so I have to speak up. I’ve been doing it for like the last two weeks. You’ve seen I’ve been angry. I’m p****d off,” the 30-year-old Adesanya said to a crowd before joining a roughly 4,000-person rally.

“Wait, hold up, how many of you walk into a store and have to put your hands behind your back just so they don’t think you’re stealing?

“How many of you walk down the street and have to kind of smile and try and make the person, who you see is already scared of you ... to make them feel comfortable?” said Adesanya, adding that he had already experienced racist incidents on multiple occasions since moving to his new flat.

“Three times already I’ve had to have racist, scared white people jump when they see me. And I smile at them. So now I gotta stay at the side and let them walk through just so they don’t get scared when they see me.

“Why? Cuz I’m black. Just cuz I’m black. What did I do? I didn’t have a choice. If I had a choice, I’d still be black,” said “The Last Stylebender”, who successfully defended his belt against Yoel Romero via unanimous decision at UFC 248 in March.

“After this we’re doing a march, but we’ve been talking for so long, marching for so long, but it’s not about us now. Shout-out to all the white people, all the people of different races being here, because we need you. We need you to speak up, to say something.

“I’m sick and tired of seeing those faces get killed because guess what, I see myself in them. The whole time, and it’s heartbreaking, man, I’m p****d off,” he said, referring to Chauvin who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes before the unarmed black man died in Minneapolis. Chauvin was fired from the police department and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

“We squashed that Covid curve ... let’s squash that s*** right away,” Adesanya said.