"If you see someone and you are bitch enough to sneak up on them and [punch], you're a bitch, you're a sucker, you're f--ng lower than dirt. There's nothing high and mighty about that... One of our teammates got killed with a sucker-punch, a coward punch. And the guys only got house arrest."
"We're trying to change the law. So that way if you sucker punch someone, you get 15-20 years. And we're never gonna stop."
Israel Adesanya's teammate Liufau Vake was killed in May 2021 after being sucker punched outside a bar in Auckland, New Zealand. Vake was struck on the head by Daniel Havili while unaware, causing him to fall and suffer a skull fracture and brain bleeding. Despite surgery, Vake died nine days later. Havili received two years and nine months for manslaughter, while another assailant received six months home detention. Adesanya has since campaigned for stricter laws against sucker punches, advocating for 15-20 year sentences. He criticizes the inadequate sentencing, noting one assailant received house arrest during COVID-19 lockdown when everyone was confined indoors anyway.
Read at Sherdog
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