Israel Adesanya nearly got himself mixed up with music mogul Sean Combs.
The former UFC middleweight champion was contacted by Combs in the wake of his knockout victory over Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in Miami; however, plans to collaborate with “P. Diddy” never materialized — which may have kept Adesanya off a not-so-illustrious list.
Combs has since been arrested and charged sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
“God protects me, I’m so glad God protects me, because look, if I got invited to the ‘White Party,’ I’d have gone,” Adesanya told Joe Rogan. “After I knocked out Pereira in Miami, we went to Tootsies the next night, and they were like, ‘Yo. P. Diddy was in here watching your fight last night.’ And I was like, ‘Wait. Word? Crazy.’”
“I went and checked my DMs and I saw, oh, he hit me up,” Adesanya continued. “And he was talking about two months later I wanna do an interview or whatever. And I said, ‘Here’s my manager’s number.’ Bop, cool. Nothing ever came of it. But again, that’s why I say God be protecting me. Beause who knows? You never know.”
Combs has pleaded Not Guilty to the charges and his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, slammed the “unjust prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
The 35 year-old Adesanya (24-4) would go on to lose his middleweight title to Sean Strickland, then failed to reclaim the crown in his grudge match opposite Dricus Du Plessis. No word yet on when “The Last Stylebender” plans to make his UFC return, but it sounds like he wants to forget about the title and just fight.