Adesanya apologizes for ‘wrong euphemism’ in Twin Towers comment

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Israel Adesanya owned up to his mistake and apologized.

While talking about the toughness of his opponent, Yoel Romero, Israel Adesanya used a remark about 9/11 that got him in a bit of hot water with some people.

“He’s human like anyone else,” Adesanya said about Romero. “And everyone likes to make this myth about, ‘Oh, he’s steel, like kicking steel,’ or you hit him and he doesn’t fall. I’ll touch him enough times. I’ll touch him enough times and eventually he’ll crumble like the Twin Towers.”

Soon after people reacted to his comments, Adesanya took to social media to apologize.

“I never made a joke about people dying or made light of the tragic event that was 9/11,” Adesanya wrote. “I was simply rambling and my brain worked faster than my mouth in a moment to chose the wrong euphemism.

“You speak on the mic enough times and you’re bound to miss the mark with some bars. I did on this one and for that I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful in the future with my words.”

Adesanya made a poor choice coming up with that comparison, but to his credit, it’s true that he hasn’t really had much (or any?) missteps like these during all the other times he has tried to sell a fight. There also didn’t seem to be any malice from him here.

More importantly, instead of doubling down — like other fighters have done in similar or far worse situations — Adesanya acknowledged the mistake, owned up to it, and immediately apologized. It’s definitely not the worst thing said in MMA, but this is the proper way to handle things, and most should be able to move on from this now.

Interestingly enough, middleweight contender Paulo Costa also took offense to Adesanya’s Twin Towers remarks, but then went a bit overboard himself, calling the champion a “dirty kiwi” that he wants to “really kill.”