June 28, (THEWILL) – When Portuguese star player Cristiano Ronaldo shifted two Coca-Cola bottles out of sight during a Euro 2020 pre-match Press Conference earlier this month, THEWILL reported how it reverberated across the media and online with a dip in the valuation of the beverage company, yet he is not the first sportsman to clash with drink sponsors.
Nigerian-born New Zealand professional mixed martial artist and former kickboxer and boxer, Israel Adesanya, the Middleweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has had a lingering battle with carbonated sugary drinks and a long running spat with Monster energy drinks at his Press Conferences way before Ronaldo.
THEWILL recalls that Ronaldo shifted two Coca-Cola bottles out of sight from the cameras, before picking up his favoured bottle of water and announcing, “Agua,” to the world, in that viral clip that was seen across the world and imitated by other players, especially French midfielder Paul Pogba.
The action, innocuous as it may have seemed but which was a stand by the Portuguese professional against the unhealthy consumption of sugary beverages based on his own strict dietary regimen, impacted Coca-Cola’s stock price by an incredible £2.84billion but, as THEWILL reported, the company recovered by the next day’s trading.
As social media consumed the trend, footage emerged of another superstar athlete performing several similar snubs to sponsors during his own pre-fight –in the world of full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting that is the Mixed Martial Arts of the UFC. This is Adesanya’s sport and he is the Middleweight champion.
One of the official sponsors of the UFC is Monster Energy drink and, from his actions at different Press events, there is no love lost between Adesanya and these energy beverages. Thanks to the Ronaldo/Coca-Cola moment, the war between Israel and Monster has become a bubbled up and is getting attention.
Clips of Adesanya began trending again when those who argue that Ronaldo was far from the trendsetter when it comes to putting aside sponsor brands at pressers went digging for Adesanya’s ongoing Monster war.
In one of these clips, “The Last Stylebender”, as Adesanya is popularly known, arrived at a post-fight presser, fresh after his spectacular UFC 243 knockout of fan-favourite Robert Whittaker and just before taking his seat, tossed a can of Monster Energy drink away.
One of either Dana White, President of the UFC, or an employee of Monster, who was sitting close by Adesanya could be heard appealing to the champion: “Relax, man. Relax.”
It was not a one off incident for Adesanya, the way it happened in Ronaldo’s case. Another clip of another Press event, this time a pre-fight conference ahead of Adesanya’s UFC 253 showdown with Paulo Costa, The Last Stylebender purposely covers the drink with his championship belt to keep it out of the camera shot and out of sight.
A third Press Conference did not change Adesanya’s mindset about Monster drinks. At an event before the wildly popular Adesanya versus Blachowicz showdown, the champion simply removes the beverage off the table in front of him and as Pogba did at this year’s Euro, he placed it on the floor away from view.
This ongoing feud has not been addressed by the UFC in the official manner the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) did with the stunts of Ronaldo and those players that immediately followed his lead possibly because no one in the UFC has the guts to cause offence with a hard-nosed Dana White keeping things in check.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
