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UFC 293 is tonight
UFC 293 is happening tonight at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. The scheduled main event has Israel Adesanya defending his UFC middleweight title against Sean Strickland. Strickland is a replacement for Dricus Du Plessis, who was expected to face Adesanya after his blistering victory over Robert Whittaker earlier this year.
This will be Adesanya’s first UFC title defence since he reclaimed his belt from Alex Pereira, via second round KO, at UFC 287 in April. Prior to losing the title to his most fierce rival, Adesanya defended the belt on five occasions.
Strickland made it into the main event after two straight wins over Abus Magomedov and Nassourdine Imavov (and by virtue of him being one of the only men in the top ten who hasn’t fought Adesanya yet).
Prior to his two fight-winning streak he lost back-to-back fights to Jared Cannonier and Alex Pereira.
Main event back-up fighter has been revealed
Just in case something goes sideways, the UFC has apparently got a plan in place to save the UFC 293 main event. MMA Junkie announced, via twitter, that former title challenger Jared Cannonier is in Sydney and has been drafted in as the replacement fighter should anything happen to Adesanya or Strickland.
The 39-year-old Cannonier lost to Adesanya, via unanimous decision, at UFC 276 in 2022. Since that loss he took a split decision over Strickland and a unanimous decision over Marvin Vettori.
Other notable wins for Cannonier include his TKOs over Anderson Silva and Jack Hermansson and his KO of Derek Brunson.
Also at UFC 293
The remainder of the UFC 293 card is mostly a showcase for talent out of Australia and New Zealand (and the City Kickboxing gym).
The co-main event is Tai Tuivasa vs. Alexander Volkov. There’s also Justin Tafa vs. Austen Lane, Tyson Pedro vs. Anton Turkalj and Jamie Mullarkey vs. John Makdessi.
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