Israel Adesanya returns to action at UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, Australia. Although he has no confirmed opponent, he is expected to defend his middleweight title in the pay-per-view headliner. What we do know is that his opponent will be the winner of the upcoming UFC 290 middleweight encounter between Robert Whittaker and Dricus du Plessis which takes place early next month. However, the UFC missed a trick in more ways than one with their Israel Adesanya plan and could end up rueing their mistake.

Let's consider the fact that UFC 290 takes place July 8 in Las Vegas. That means should Whittaker or Du Plessis win, they will have virtually next to zero downtime after the fight. In fact, they will have exactly two months to prepare for what is the biggest fight of their careers against Adesanya.

While some training camps do tend to be at least eight weeks, for major title fights, the fight camps tend to be three to four months long. For context, Islam Makhachev's lightweight title fight against Alexander Volkanovski took place in February this year, but was made official in November last year. Adesanya's rematch with Alex Pereira at UFC 287 in April was made official in January. That's at least three months of a fight camp while Whittaker and Du Plessis will have two months to prepare right from their UFC 290 fight.

Whittaker, however, recently revealed he was ready to fight Adesanya even two days after UFC 290 as long as he was healthy.

“I definitely am not looking past Dricus,” Whittaker recently said at the UFC Vegas 75 post-fight show. “He’s too dangerous and the fight has too much gravity in July, and all my focus and attention and dedication is going into July. But I’ll tell you one thing: If I’m healthy and able, I will take a fight.

“At any date, any time. I’ll take a fight two days after July if I’m healthy and able. So yeah, let’s get through July, and yeah, I’m in the fight game, you know? I’m in the business.”

While it's admirable for Whittaker to say that and Du Plessis would probably say the same, it's not ideal. Especially for Whittaker who, should he win, will likely have his last-ever shot at Adesanya considering he's already lost twice to the New Zealander. However, all this is assuming Whittaker or Du Plessis come out of their fight unscathed and are healthy.

While many believe Whittaker will make light work of the South African, this is MMA and anything can happen; Whittaker could be in a three-round war with Du Plessis and take plenty of damage. Either fighter could break their hand for example or be medically suspended for a period of three months. What happens then? Adesanya is without an opponent.

You could give Adesanya the loser — provided they are also medically cleared to fight two months on from UFC 290 — but then it would be extremely odd for the loser to get a title shot coming off a loss (even if it's happened in the past). That's especially the case if Du Plessis is the loser and gets the shot as many felt he should have been the one to face Adesanya at UFC 293 already given their heated backstory.

But what if the loser can't fight? There's no Alex Pereira MMA trilogy as the Brazilian is not only competing at UFC 291 in late July, but is also making his light heavyweight debut. You could give Jared Cannonier an opportunity, but there's next to zero interest in it, especially considering how drab their first fight was which only just happened last July.

The only other option that would make sense is giving Khamzat Chimaev the title shot. “Borz” has called for a shot at Adesanya and has also just called for a fight period given that he hasn't competed since September last year. It's certainly one that would entice the general public but with that said, Chimaev would be getting a title shot with virtually zero ranked wins at middleweight. Not to mention the fact that he is also expected to compete at the UFC 294 card when the Las Vegas promotion returns to Abu Dhabi on Oct. 21. It's certainly doable for Chimaev to compete on both cards, but it doesn't look like Dana White and company would be on board with that idea given how he's been on the shelf for so long.

As aforementioned, what would have been ideal is Du Plessis challenging Adesanya in the UFC 293 headliner from the get-go. Du Plessis is undefeated in the UFC with a five-fight win streak. It's a fight both fighters wanted. The fans wanted it. It's “fresh meat” for Adesanya and the build-up would have been great. Instead, there is uncertainty and even if the winner comes out unscathed, they will not have the ideal preparation for Adesanya.

Hopefully for the UFC's sake, things go smoothly in what will be their first return to Sydney since Nov. 2017.