Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland Set for Middleweight Title Fight at UFC 293

UFC President Dana White announced that Israel Adesanya will defend his middleweight title against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 9.

The 34-year-old Adesanya just won the middleweight title back from Alex Pereira, who defeated The Last Stylebender via fifth-round TKO last November.

Adesanya got his revenge in April with a second-round knockout win to move to 24-2 (16 knockouts) for his professional career.

The 32-year-old Strickland is 27-5 lifetime with 11 knockouts and four submission wins. He's coming off a second-round TKO victory over Abusupiyan Magomedov on July 1.

Strickland is currently ranked as the No. 5 fighter on UFC's middleweight list, while Adesanya is No. 5 on the pound-for-pound ranking.

White also announced that the co-main event will be a heavyweight bout between No. 6 Tai Tuivasa and No. 8 Alexander Volkov. No. 5 flyweight Kai Kara-France will go up against No. 10 Manel Kape.

In addition, heavyweights Austin Lane and Justin Tafa will go at it again after previously squaring off on a June 24 UFC Fight Night card. That match ended after 29 seconds when Lane accidentally poked Tafa in the eye.

On paper, this looks like a loaded card in Sydney, where the promotion hasn't been since Nov. 19, 2017 for the UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura card.