UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Photo / Michael Craig.
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Photo / Michael Craig.
Israel Adesanya sat at Auckland hospital with members of City Kickboxing, hoping their friend and teammate Fau Vake would pull through after being assaulted from behind during a night out.
Vake, 25, sustained concussion, cuts, bruising and abrasions, and fought on life support for almost a week before he dieddue to his injuries, leaving behind a young daughter.
"I remember in the hospital, she was asking him to wake up," Adesanya recalled. "That was really hard."
On Tuesday, Ofa Folau was sentenced to six months of home detention for his role in the assault that led to Vake's death. Folau was one of four men charged in relation to the assault, and pleaded guilty to two representative charges of assault with intent to injure in June. Prosecutors did not allege, nor did the court find, that Folau was responsible for Vake's death.
Last year, the New Zealand Parliament rejected a bill in its first reading to create a coward punch offence. The bill, drafted by National MP Matt King, proposed a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, as an alternative to manslaughter, for those convicted of the offence.
"I just don't understand what kind of person looks at a law like that and thinks 'this is a bad law, why would we put this in place?' I don't understand. I don't get it," Adesanya said.
Fau Vake died from injuries sustained in an attack on Symonds Street in May. Photo / Supplied
The court heard Folau chased Vake's brother, Ika, and "advanced" on him, backing him into an alcove of a shop, before punching him a number of times.
He then ran towards Fau Vake, who was being held by another man, and struck him three times in the head with a closed fist, the court heard.
"He only gets six months of home detention where he gets to be in the comfort of his own home," Adesanya said of the sentence. "I don't know if he can sleep at night, and I don't want to know."
The UFC middleweight champion had his own experience with a blindside assault, when he was attacked from behind during a night out in Auckland in 2012. He was left with a broken jaw and was admitted to Middlemore Hospital.
UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Photo / Michael Craig.
He said his was one of a number of cowardly attacks that can go unnoticed as in many cases the victims are able to pick themselves up.
"I haven't really reflected on mine much, because that was years ago. But still, it's valid because even when I was in hospital at Middlemore, there was, I think, four other people who suffered the same fate," Adesanya said.
"This is something that sometimes gets swept under the rug. You get up and dust yourself off, go to the hospital, go put ice on your face – whatever, you go about it. I haven't really reflected on my [incident], I've just reflected on our fallen brother and his close ones.
"We still move on with life, but I'll catch moments where I'm like 'f***'. Multiple times a week, I'll just get a moment where It's like 'f**, he's gone'. I don't have kids, but the thought of his daughter still wondering when her dad's coming home, that's the one that really kicks the most, because I can empathise. We all go through it in our different ways; we have each other."
