Israel Adesanya, Sean Strickland set to headline UFC 293
At UFC 293, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will fight the No. 5 ranked middleweight Sean Strickland. Dana White made the fight official on social media.
#UFC293 in Sydney, Australia pic.twitter.com/xVHYTBLqte
— danawhite (@danawhite) August 8, 2023
UFC 293 will take place in Syndey, Australia on Sept. 9, 2023.
After a long wait, UFC 293 finally has a main event. The card is set to go down in just over a month, which makes this main event announcement late in comparison to the UFC’s typical standards.
Adesanya was always the expected main event for UFC 293. After all, he and Alexander Volkanovski are the only UFC fighters with ties to Australia that could headline a pay-per-view. With Volkanovski’s injury, Adesanya was the obvious choice.
The UFC ran into struggles finding a challenger for Adesanya, however. At UFC 290, Dricus Du Plessis defeated Robert Whittaker and earned a title shot. The only issue was that an injury is preventing Du Plessis to make the walk at UFC 293. That left Strickland as the highest-ranked middleweight that Adesanya has yet to fight.
At UFC 293, Adesanya will look to get his first title defense in his second reign as middleweight champion. In his first run, he defended the belt five times. Adesanya now has a chance to continue his dominance over the middleweight division and add more defense to his resume.
Strickland earned this opportunity after defeating Abus Magomedov and Nassourdine Imavov. Additionally, he was willing to accept the fight when the UFC called on short notice.
The most interesting aspect of the UFC 293 main event between Adesanya and Strickland could be the build-up. The pair have bad blood stemming all the way back to UFC 276 pre-fight press conference where they exchanged some trash talk. That trash talk should be plentiful in the lead-up to UFC 293.
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