Backup Fighter Revealed for Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland at UFC 293

A former title challenger is in Australia and ready to step in for the UFC 293 main event.

Drew Beaupré | Sep 5, 2023

Backup Fighter Revealed for Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland at UFC 293 /

Jared Cannonier is in Sydney, Australia and will weigh-in as the official backup fighter for the UFC 293 main event between Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland.

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The news was first announced by Mike Bohn, who reported that MMA Junkie spoke to “Killa Gorilla” upon his arrival in Sydney and confirmed that he would be backing up the weekend’s middleweight title bout.

The UFC doesn’t always have an official backup fighter on hand for title fights, but given that Adesanya vs. Strickland is the only middleweight matchup scheduled for UFC 293 it's probably not a bad idea having Cannonier available to jump in if needed.

Jared Cannonier vs. Marvin Vettori. — (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Cannonier challenged Adesanya for the middleweight title at UFC 276 last year and lost a unanimous decision. “Killa Gorilla” rebounded from that fight by winning a close split decision over Strickland in the UFC’s final main event of 2022, and earlier this year Cannonier defeated Marvin Vettori to put himself at #3 in the promotion’s middleweight rankings.

The 39-year-old is actually ranked two spots above Strickland, who is being welcomed by some fans as a fresh challenge for Adesanya after “The Last Stylebender” previously defeated most of the division’s top fighters during his first middleweight title reign.

Strickland has scored back-to-back wins after he closed out last year with that narrow defeat against Cannonier. The 32-year-old is a sizeable underdog heading into his first title shot at UFC 293, but many fans are excited to see if the outspoken fighter attempts to get under Adesanya’s skin at all during the fight week media events.

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Published Sep 5, 2023