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Israel Adesanya stunned the MMA world by bringing over his unbeaten MMA streak and knocking out Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221 in Perth. However, as the lights dimmed and the cheers faded, 'The Last Stylebender' could not hold back his tears.
Being led back to the dressing room backstage by his teammates and coach Eugene Bareman, an emotional Israel Adesanya broke down in a way fans have rarely seen him ever since.
Despite Adesanya mentioning keeping a promise to a deceased teammate in the video, it was not clear to the fans why it mattered so much to the soon-to-be middleweight champion.
Adesanya's City Kickboxing teammate and close friend Dan Hooker took it upon himself to talk about the tragedy in a column he penned for Athletes Voice.
In a heartfelt account of comradeship, 'The Hangman' narrated how Adesanya made a promise to teammate Jamie Scott 'VDK' van der Kuijl to fight and win in the UFC. The promise was fulfilled by Adesanya and team CKB keeping him in their hearts, even though van der Kuijl was not around to witness his brothers-in-arms soar towards success:
"Israel made a promise to Jamie before he passed, that one day he would be winning fights in the UFC. For Israel to be able to fulfil that promise on his debut in Perth, at UFC 221, meant everything to him. He was backstage in tears after that fight," Hooker wrote.
Hooker revealed that van der Kuijl's photo was hung at the CKB gym to keep his spirits with them and remind them of what they were fighting for.
The incident happened two years and a few months before Adesanya's UFC debut. According to a report by NZ Herald, van der Kuijl passed away when an ATV vehicle he was driving went off track and rolled 15-20 meters down a steep embankment. He was killed on the spot.
In his column, Hooker remembered mentioning that van der Kuijl was working on his family's farm trying to save up money for his next fight when the tragedy occurred.
Van der Kuijl was awarded Wairoa's Sportsperson of the Year in 2010 and had two professional fights under his belt, as per Sherdog.
Israel Adesanya lost another teammate to street violence
More recently, City Kickboxing lost another member of their close-knit family when Kiwi MMA fighter Fau Vake passed away following an assault on the street.
Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker, and every other CKB fighter who has competed since have paid tribute to Vake in some form or other.
The grief-stricken circumstances were made worse for the CKB team as they were left enraged over the New Zealand judiciary system's treatment of the incident.
One of the four assailants, who pleaded guilty to two representative charges of assault with intent to injure, was handed six months of home detention for each charge. Given that Vake left behind a grieving wife and 3-year-old daughter, the sentence was understandably regarded as insufficient by a distraught Adesanya.
