BREAKING: Sydney, your
#UFC293 main event is official!! 🚨🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/D2t7xTy8Ns— UFC (@ufc)
August 8, 2023
Israel
Adesanya’s next middleweight title defense will not come
against the opponent many initially anticipated.
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UFC president Dana White announced on Tuesday that Adesanya will
face Sean
Strickland in the UFC 293
main event in Sydney, Australia on Sept. 9. Three other fights were
confirmed for the card: Alexander
Volkov vs. Taia Tuivasa at heavyweight; Kaia Kara-France vs.
Manel
Kape at flyweight and Austen Lane
vs. Justin Tafa
at heavyweight.
“This will be Adesanya’s 11th consecutive title fight. What I love
about Israel is he’s always ready to take on the best in the world
— anyone, anytime,” White said. “And Strickland is an absolute
maniac who doesn’t back down from anyone. This will be a great
fight.”
Adesanya was supposed to face top middleweight contender Dricus Du
Plessis, as indicated by their heated in-cage faceoff following
Du Plessis’ win over Robert
Whittaker at UFC 290. However, Ariel Helwani recently
reported that Du Plessis was “banged up” headling into his July
matchup with Whittaker and a September turnaround wouldn’t have
been ideal for the South African.
After losing the 185-pound to Alex
Pereira via fifth-round TKO at UFC 281, Adesanya regained the
title with a second-round KO of “Poatan” at UFC 287 on April 8.
Pereira is the only middleweight to defeat “The Last Stylebender”
in UFC competition. The Nigerian-born Kiwi owns notable wins over
the likes of Whittaker (twice), Anderson
Silva, Yoel Romero,
Marvin
Vettori (twice), Paulo
Costa, Jared
Cannonier, Kelvin
Gastelum and Derek
Brunson.
Strickland, meanwhile, is coming off a second-round technical
knockout victory against the little-known Abusupiyan
Magomedov in the UFC on ESPN 48 main event on July 1. Prior to
that, he kicked off his 2023 campaign with a five-round verdict
against Nassourdine
Imavov in the UFC Fight Night 217 main event on Jan. 14. The
former King of the Cage champion has won eight of his last 10
Octagon appearances dating back to October 2018.