UFC's Israel Adesanya Speaks at New Zealand Rally: 'I'm Pissed Off'

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya attended a march held in solidarity with Black Lives Matter on Monday in Auckland, New Zealand, which was staged after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

MMA Junkie's Dave Doyle shared some of Adesanya's when he addressed the crowd:

"I'm pissed off.  Wait, hold up. How many of you walk into a store and have to put your hands behind your back just so they don't think you're stealing? How many of you walk down the street and have to kind of smile and try to make you see the person who already is scared of you, you make them feel comfortable? [...]

"I just moved to a spot. I'm at the top. I go in the elevator, three times already I've had to have racist, sacred white people jump when they see me, so I smile at them. So now I gotta go to the side and let them walk through just so they don't get scared when they see me." 

On May 25, four Minneapolis police officers pulled Floyd from his car, believing him to be a suspect in an alleged forgery in progress. A video of the arrest showed one officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on Floyd's neck while Floyd was on the ground. Floyd remained restrained despite saying he was unable to breathe, and he later died at a local hospital.

The officers involved were fired, and prosecutors charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree assault.

The Hennepin County medical examiner determined Floyd's cause of death was "homicide resulting from being restrained" upon conducting an autopsy, per CNN's Nadia Kounang.

Across the country and in cities around the world, protesters demonstrated to demand an end to police violence and systemic racism.