Adesanya vows to break Sean Strickland’s jaw in Sydney

Israel Adesanya

Nigerian-born New Zealand-based UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, has vowed to destroy his opponent, Sean Strickland’s jaw at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia, on September 9.

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

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

The Odogbolu-born Adesanya said he would deploy all tactics to break the 32-year-old Strickland’s jaw in the battle of Sydney. Strickland is 27-5 lifetime with 11 knockouts and four submission wins.

He is coming off a second-round TKO victory over Abusupiyan Magomedov on July 1. Strickland is currently ranked as the number five fighter on UFC’s middleweight list, while Adesanya is number five on the pound-for-pound ranking.

UFC boss, Dana Whyte, announced that the co-main event would be a heavyweight bout between number six, Tai Tuivasa and number eight, Alexander Volkov.

Fifth-ranked flyweight, Kai Kara-France will go up against number 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 November 19, 2017 for the UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Tybura card.

Meanwhile, many Nigerians, who have fallen in love with Adesanya’s style of fighting, are anxiously waiting for the September 9 bout.

Those who spoke with The Guardian have tipped the Last Stylebender, as Adesanya is called, to carry the day.

“I see Adesanya beating