UFC star Israel Adesanya has issued a public apology to Olympic boxing star Imane Khelif. Adesanya was among those who accused her of being born male after Angela Carini withdrew from their first-round bout at the Olympic Games.
Khelif, 25, has since advanced to the final of the 66kg category, where she will face China’s Yang Liu, three years after being eliminated in the quarter-finals in Tokyo. She is one of two female fighters who failed an unspecified gender test during last year’s World Championships in Delhi. They were conducted by the International Boxing Association, who are no longer recognised by the International Olympic Committee due to concerns about its financial management, governance, ethics, refereeing and judging.
In a bid to quell the controversy, Khelif’s father even presented her birth certificate on television. Now, in light of the new information and on the eve of Khelif’s final, Adesanya has retracted his contentious tweet.
Adesanya had previously put out a tweet alongside a video of Khelif’s past fights which read: “Men should not be boxing women. LOL he couldn’t even finish her. Anyway, People > politics.”
In a subsequent interview on ‘The Rock’, Adesanya said: “From now on, I’m going to leave women’s fights to women. I tried to speak up about it and apparently, I got it wrong, or a lot of people got it wrong with this misinformation.
“I don’t like to get triggered and when something triggers me I’m a fighter, I saw the news or the articles and I was like, ‘Why are they letting a trans person [fight women]’? And then I find out later she wasn’t actually trans.
“So, to the lady, my bad. I got that wrong. To the lady, the boxer, I’m sorry. I didn’t understand what was going on.”
On the eve of her critical semi-final victory against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, she issued a stern message to her dissenters and critics, which included J.K. Rowling and former president of the United States Donald Trump. She said: “I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter.
“Refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects. It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
Khelif will take on Yang in their golden bout on Friday, August 9 under the roof of tennis stadium Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros. Ahead of the fight, she said: “I am focused. I am here for a good performance and my dream. I will give everything I have for the final.”
Elsewhere, UFC champion Adesanya is preparing for his middleweight title rematch with Dricus Du Plessis. The UFC giants will come together on August 17 at UFC 305, which takes place at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia.
