Be it the ongoing $1.6 billion class action antitrust lawsuit, company president Dana White being filmed slapping his wife on New Year's Eve, or the growing criticism from fans that the product is being spread too thin over too many events, it's been a controversial year for the UFC – and the company has shrugged it all off.

Quite simply, they're earning too much money. Under parent company Endeavour, they made almost $150 million in profit in 2022, and this weekend's UFC 293 showed that isn't going to change anytime soon. Even without a main event in place, the 14,000-seat Qudos Bank Arena sold out within an hour, suggesting fans were so eager for the UFC's return to Sydney, Australia after six years away that they didn't really care if the show had a major headliner or not, which is how the show ended up with a main event of middleweight champion Israel Adesanya defending his belt against Sean Strickland.

Despite being pushed as a headliner by the UFC for almost half a decade, Adesanya never became a crossover star, but the UFC saw an opportunity to try again. Capitalizing on some real-world heat, they booked him to face Dricus du Plessis at UFC 293 after Izzy got in Stillknocks' face and repeatedly called him the N-word.

The twisted logic is that Adesanya, a proud Nigerian, would attract New Zealanders – and perhaps Aussies too – simply because he's lived there for over two decades. When du Plessis had to drop out with a shoulder injury, instead of rebooking it, they kept Izzy in place and went all the way down the ranking to #7 to find his opponent.

Sean Strickland, for his part, got this title shot off the back of a win over the unranked Abus Magomedov and spent the back end of 2022 getting knocked out by former champion Alex Pereira and ground out by former challenger Jared Cannonier.

He was essentially a warm body drafted in on short notice to fill a contractual obligation rather than a deserving opponent, which was reflected in the gambling odds. He closed as a +600 underdog – one of the biggest underdogs of all time in MMA history.

In person, it never felt that way. From the press conference earlier in the week, American Strickland, donning a Crocodile Dundee hat, was welcomed with open arms by the Aussie fans and visibly got under Adesanya's skin with comments about his feminine dress sense and borderline legal videos he posted on social media with his dog.

Within 72 hours, he went from being a corporate patsy to being a man with nothing to lose, and when the bell rang on Sunday morning, he acted like it too.

His fighting style is regularly criticized. Walking opponents down with boxing and front kicks while maintaining the Philly Shell position makes him predictable in offense and susceptible to looping attacks in defense. It was expected that he would step right into Adesanya's hooks and head kicks.

Instead, his insistent forward pressure forced Izzy to fight off the back foot and constantly reset his position. Unable to plant his feet, he couldn't fire off anything with any snap. And when he did get a moment to fire back, Strickland didn't fall for it. At the end of round 1, when Adesanya threw his patented check hook, Strickland went right down the middle with a straight and got a knockdown.

Adesanya's coach, Eugene Bareman, is considered one of the best in the game. But he had no answer for Strickland's tactics in between rounds, and as the fight progressed through the rounds, the champion looked increasingly beaten down and static.

Strickland didn't change things up either. He spent round after round closing down Adesanya, the man considered the craftiest striker in the UFC, with very little besides basic one-two boxing combinations and cage-cutting L-step footwork.

Footage showed Strickland preparing for this fight with Adesanya's nemesis – and the guy who flattened him at UFC 276 – Pereira, and as the fight clock ran down, it became obvious this gave him the advantage. He seemed to know all of Adesanya's tricks and tactics before the champ had a chance to use them.

At the final bell, Strickland looked fresh, like he'd hardly been touched, and the result was a foregone conclusion: Sean Strickland defeated Israel Adesanya to become the new UFC middleweight champion by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46).

The MMA world was stunned, the fans in attendance went crazy, and Dana White looked proud putting the belt around Strickland's waist. But he's more than just a champion; he's on a unique list alongside Matt Serra, Holly Holm and Julianna Pena, a Mount Rushmore of fighters who were counted out from day one then shocked the world.

As for Adesanya, Dana White has already said he will get an immediate rematch. He will simply never learn.

[Header: Dana White wraps the UFC middleweight championship belt around Sean Strickland's waist following his victory over Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 293 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia on September 10, 2023. /Zuffa]