Sean Strickland almost never got his opportunity to fight Israel Adesanya.

Strickland became the new middleweight champion of the world following his shocking but impressive unanimous decision victory over Adesanya at UFC 293 this past weekend in Sydney, Australia.

The American, of course, was never supposed to be here.

Initially, it was Dricus du Plessis who was set to fight Adesanya at UFC 293 only to decline due to the quick turnaround from UFC 290 while he was also carrying an injury.

Strickland was the highest-ranked contender that was available who had to yet to fight Adesanya, and after some reported hesitation from the UFC, was officially booked for a title shot.

That hesitation may not have only come due to Strickland's ranking and current winning streak, but also his unpredictability and all-round outspoken nature.

That was on full display when he first arrived in Sydney as Strickland revealed he had punched a trash talking Adesanya fan in the stomach.

While the now champion played down the severity of the incident, it almost cost him his fight.

That's according to Strickland's Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick who revealed that not only was the Australian government not happy — backup fighter Jared Cannonier's coach was also being flown to Australia to potentially coach his fighter against Adesanya.

“Apparently the Australian government and whoever heard this, they got word of this and it went downhill from there,” Nicksick said on The MMA Hour (via BJ Penn). “It got to the point where they were flying John Crouch out from Arizona from MMA Lab to come out and corner Jared Cannonier.

“When I heard that, I was like ‘Oh bro, we are off, they are going to pull us from this card.’ Remember these guys probably didn’t want Sean in this spot, to begin with, we were walking on thin ice the moment we got there… That’s not a cheap flight, that’s a long travel, Jared Cannonier is already here, Rob Emerson was already there with him. It was probably pretty close to getting pulled.

“I don’t know what changed or what happened behind the scenes.”

Strickland somehow remained on the card and the rest is history.