MANILA, Philippines – There’s plenty of tabloid and chat room chatter prior to UFC 293, which takes place Sunday, September 10, at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
UFC middleweight champion and No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter Israel Adesanya said he isn’t at all impressed or intimidated by the challenger to this throne, No. 5 Sean Strickland.
During the press conference prior to this big-numbered UFC event, Adesanya said that Strickland wasn’t menacing at all.
“When we went backstage, silence. He just walked away… performing, he’s acting. But then I realized, that’s his first impression. Then you try and do it again, and I’m like ‘Bro, you don’t intimidate me.’ You have one chance.”
Adesanya (24-2) looks to start his second title reign after retaking the Middleweight belt from Alex Pereira last April with a win over Strickland (27-5).
Strickland instead punched an Adesanya fan after the latter said the champion would knock him out.
Now, he hopes to achieve the real thing inside the Octagon.
He bounced back from a pair of late-2022 losses to Alex Pereira and Jared Cannonier with wins of Nassourdine Imavov and Abusupiyan Magomedov to set up this title bout.
In the co-main event, hometown favorite No. 6 heavyweight contender Tai Tuivasa takes on No. 8 Alexander Volkov in a collision of colossal proportions.
Tuivasa (15-5) once struck fear into the hearts of opponents with his knockout power and brash attitude. However, two consecutive knockout losses to Cyril Gane and Sergei Pavlovich have taken the starch out of his momentum.
The 30-year old Tuivasa will need the hometown boost he can get against surging Russian fighter Alexander Volkov (36-10) who has his own two-win streak going after impressive first round knockouts of Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alexander Romanov.
UFC 293 will air live in the Philippines on the Premier Sports Channel on Skycable and Cignal as well as streaming sites TapGo TV and Blast TV. The main card begins at 10 a.m. (Manila time) and the prelims start at 6:30 a.m.