It took just over four weeks until the event to get an official announcement, but Israel Adesanya will get his desired opportunity to fight close to home in Sydney when he meets Sean Strickland in the UFC 293 main event on Sept. 9.
After the originally planned middleweight title matchup with Dricus Du Plessis fell through due to injury, Adesanya (24-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) was adamant he wanted to stay on the card, and he didn’t care about which challenger was standing across from him.
Given the fact he’s already cleared out of the top-five ranked contenders in his division, the logical opponent was Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC), though there appeared to be some hesitation on the UFC’s side to make the fight. Ultimately cooler heads prevailed, but questions remain about whether the matchup makes sense, and whether the pre-fight talk could be an ugly look for the sport.
