Mixed martial arts fighter Israel Adesanya's admission he crossed the line with his 'rape' comment hasn't stopped BMW dumping him as an ambassador.
The UFC star was due to be unveiled as the new face of BMW New Zealand on Monday, but has paid the price for a social media post earlier this week.
"Bro, I will f--kin rape you," Adesanya posted in a video to his Instagram story directed at fellow UFC middleweight Kevin Holland, who criticised Adesanya in an offensive manner last week. The post was no longer visible on Wednesday morning.
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"Due to the comments made by an athlete online, we have reviewed our pending association with said athlete and we have decided not to push forward with a specific ambassador for the brand at this time in New Zealand."
The day after deputy prime minister Grant Robertson condemned him for the post, BMW issued a statement today.
The statement followed Adesanya's own earlier in the day, when he admitted he'd crossed a line, but refrained from apologising.
"Last weekend fight talk escalated to a point in which I crossed the line. I understand the gravity of this word and how it can affect and hurt other people apart from my opponent, although that was never my intention," Adesanya said.
"I am still to growing under the spotlight, and I take this is as a lesson to be more selective with words under pressure."
Speaking on Radio New Zealand yesterday morning, Robertson, also the minister for sport, said there was "never a time" to make flippant comments about rape.
"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," Robertson said.
"But I would certainly be making clear to him, and to anybody actually, that we have to take rape seriously. It's not an issue that anyone should be making jokes or flippant comments about at all."
Robertson's comments followed those of Rape Prevention Education executive director Debbi Tohill, who said comments like Adesanya's could normalise threats of sexual violence.
With more than 4.6 million Instagram followers and in excess of 860,000 on Twitter, Adesanya has a huge social media following who would have been exposed to the comment.
"People with a large social media following can play a significant role in reducing rates of sexual violence and creating healthy cultures of consent for any sexual activity," Tohill told Stuff this week.
"Conversely, these kind of comments where rape is used as a threat create a culture where it is acceptable to make sexualised comments with the potential to cause further harm. Sportspeople and celebrities can really influence young people, we would like to see this happen in a positive way, not misused and normalising threats of sexual violence."
Adesanya is frequently outspoken and had overstepped the mark before.
He issued an apology in February last year after his "brain worked faster than my mouth" when claiming his then-upcoming opponent Yoel Romero would "crumble like the Twin Towers".
"You speak on the mic enough times and you are bound to miss the mark with some bars. I did on this one and for that I am sorry. I will be more careful in future with my words."
But the UFC is not concerned enough by the "rape" claim to sanction its middleweight champion.
Despite Adesanya being one of the biggest global stars in the multibillion-dollar mixed martial arts promotion, its communications hub in Las Vegas offered no comment to Stuff.
The Halberg Foundation, which on Wednesday hosted its Halberg Awards Decade Champions awards night and crowned Adesanya as its 2019 sportsman of the year, did not respond to approaches for comment.
** This story was originally published by Stuff.co.nz and was republished with permission.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/news/ufc-news-bmw-israel-adesanya-brand-ambassador-rape-comment/a1efa450-4892-4ed0-a60c-c786c39169de
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