Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will be the headline attraction as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to Sydney - but he won't be facing the opponent he wanted.

Nigerian-born New Zealander Adesanya will defend his freshly recaptured title against the outspoken Sean Strickland as the main card for the UFC 293 Sydney event in September.

UFC President Dana White announced the card on Wednesday.

"What I love about Israel (is) he's always ready to take on the best in the world - anyone, any time," White said on social media.

"And Strickland is an absolute maniac, who doesn't back down from anyone."

Adesanya had been gunning to face South Africa's Dricus Du Plessis after the pair shared a heated in-cage exchange in July.

The bad blood stemmed from a claim by Du Plessis that he would be the first "real" African UFC champion, referring to the fact that Adesanya and other former fighters had left the continent to live elsewhere.

Du Plessis pulled out after a foot injury sustained during his UFC 290 win last month against Australia's Robert Whittaker.

Strickland has polarised fight fans with comments considered hateful by some, while others view them merely as attempts to create controversy.

"You let these women come in the workforce, now we make less money," Strickland said in June.

"We've got kids raising themselves on f***ing TikTok.

"As a collective man group we need to elect somebody that's going to put women back in the kitchen."

In the co-main event, heavyweight slugger and NSW native Tai Tuivasa faces Russia's Alexander Volkov.

This event will mark the first UFC fight in Sydney since 2017.