UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya still hopes to fight Dricus du Plessis at some point in the future.

Adesanya is currently set to defend his 185-pound strap against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, Australia. Of course, he was originally expected to fight Du Plessis following the latter's win over Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 last month.

However, the turnaround was too soon for the South African who was already banged up going into the Whittaker fight. And so, Strickland was given the opportunity instead.

In the end, it was ultimately a blunder on the UFC's part to book the Du Plessis-Whittaker fight so close to the Adesanya-headlined Sydney card as it seemed like destiny for the pair to fight each other, especially given their ongoing beef.

As far as Adesanya is concerned, Du Plessis chickened out. But while he's seemingly moved on for now, he still wants the fight.

“We’ll see if he shows up but also, I’ll see how I feel,” Adesanya told MMA Junkie (via MMA Fighting). “I’ll see how I feel. I do want that fight. I feel like that will be one of the most important fights in sporting history. I mean that when I say in history.

“I’ll see how I feel because again, time keeps on ticking. Time waits for no man.”

First, Adesanya needs to take care of business against Strickland with the latter being a major underdog going into the contest. While many are expecting a win for the champion, overconfidence could always come into play and like we've seen over the years, anything can happen in MMA.

That said, Adesanya is not taking him lightly at all as he's maintained in recent times. At the same time, he expects to knock Strickland out.

“I’m on a warpath, and I’m going to end this man,” Adesanya said. “He’s getting knocked out. He’s getting knocked out in this fight. But I believe his team will really try to get him to wrestle or clinch with me. He’ll get dumped on his ass and knocked out again.

“I don’t take him lightly because a man with everything to gain and nothing to lose is a very dangerous man. I take him very seriously, but I just know who I am and where I’m at.”