{"id":36911,"date":"2026-02-25T17:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/After-teammates-death-Adesanya-seeks-harsher-coward-punch-laws-in-New-Zealand-200258"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:42:18","slug":"after-teammates-death-adesanya-seeks-harsher-coward-punch-laws-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/after-teammates-death-adesanya-seeks-harsher-coward-punch-laws-in-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"After teammate\u2019s death, Adesanya seeks harsher &#8216;coward punch&#8217; laws in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/after-teammates-death-adesanya-seeks-harsher-coward-punch-laws-in-new-zealand.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Israel-Adesanya-56374\">Israel<br \/>\nAdesanya<\/a> wants harsh laws for sucker punches in New<br \/>\nZealand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Adesanya\u2019s teammate, Liufau Vake, popularly called Fau, was<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecoconet.tv\/coco-talanoa\/sports\/mma-fighter-fau-vake-attack-man-sentenced\/\">killed by a sucker punch<\/a> in 2021. Vake and his<br \/>\nbrother Ika were attacked by four men outside a bar on Symonds<br \/>\nStreet in Auckland, New Zealand, on May 16, 2021. The 25-year-old<br \/>\nVake was punched on the side of the head by Daniel Havili when he<br \/>\nwasn\u2019t alert. Vake was unable to break the fall and hit his head on<br \/>\nthe side of the road, leading to a skull fracture and brain<br \/>\nbleeding. Vake couldn\u2019t recover despite undergoing surgery and<br \/>\npassed away nine days later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Havili pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two<br \/>\nyears and nine months in prison. Meanwhile, another assailant, Ofa<br \/>\nHe Mooni Folau, pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to six<br \/>\nmonths\u2019 home detention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Adesanya has since been working on making the laws harsher so<br \/>\npeople hesitate before punching someone. Adesanya further notes<br \/>\nthat one assailant was sentenced to house arrest during the<br \/>\nCOVID-19 lockdown, when almost the entire world was locked down<br \/>\ninside their homes. Adesanya continues to work towards stricter<br \/>\nlaws and doesn\u2019t plan to stop anytime soon.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018We\u2019re Never Gonna Stop\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIf you see someone and you are bitch enough to sneak up on them<br \/>\nand [punch], you\u2019re a bitch, you\u2019re a sucker, you\u2019re f\u2014-ng lower<br \/>\nthan dirt,\u201d Adesanya said during a video conference. \u201cThere\u2019s<br \/>\nnothing high and mighty about that\u2026 One of our teammates got killed<br \/>\nwith a sucker-punch, a coward punch. And the guys only got house<br \/>\narrest. And they got put on house arrest while everyone\u2019s on<br \/>\nlockdown. So we\u2019re all on f\u2014-ing house arrest. So how the f\u2014k is<br \/>\nthat gonna count on his sentence? Anyway, we\u2019re trying to change<br \/>\nthe law. So that way if you sucker punch someone, you get 15-20<br \/>\nyears. And we\u2019re never gonna stop.\u201d<center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVJYYvlEQ3a\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" readability=\"-0.26582278481013\"><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel Adesanya wants harsh laws for sucker punches in New Zealand.&nbsp; Adesanya\u2019s teammate, Liufau Vake, popularly called Fau, was killed by a sucker punch in 2021. Vake and his brother Ika were attacked by four men outside a bar on Symonds Street in Auckland, New Zealand, on May 16, 2021. The 25-year-old Vake was punched [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}