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Nassourdine
Imavov has gradually been building an impressive resume over
the course of the past year.
That work culminated in a surprising second-round stoppage of
ex-champ Israel
Adesanya in the UFC
Saudi Arabia headliner at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on
Saturday. While Imavov was pleased to vanquish an opponent who
ruled the middleweight division for years, he’s taking the victory
in stride.
“To be honest, it’s just another victory,” Imavov said through a
translator at the post-fight press conference. “A fight is a fight.
Obviously, it feels great to beat someone who’s a legend of the
sport.”
In addition to Adesanya, Imavov has bested the likes of Brendan
Allen, Jared
Cannonier and Roman
Dolidze during a run that began in February 2024. The Frenchman
believes it’s more than enough to have earned himself a crack at
middleweight gold. Conveniently enough, the title will be on the
line next Saturday when Dricus Du
Plessis faces Sean
Strickland in the UFC 312
main event.
“I cleaned [out] the weight class in one year,” Imavov said. “Four
fights, two wins against Top-10 competition, two [finishes] against
Top-5 competition. Next is the belt.”
While Imaov was an underdog heading into the showdown with
Adesanya, the Frenchman proved that he was a talent on the rise by
rallying from a slow start to put his opponent away. According to
Imavov, the tide began to turn toward the end of the first round
when he landed an uppercut to get his opponent’s attention.
“That was the goal — to surprise you. I told you a surprise was
coming,” Imavov said. “We worked on it during the warmup, we worked
on it during the whole week and it worked.
“We knew he would come in in very good shape. That’s what he did
from the very beginning, very explosive, very fast. But I had to
put my wrestling on, and with the wrestling, [using] the fence with
the wrestling, the uppercut would come. My rib was hurt, but I kept
wrestling to be able to feint, to be able to strike with the
fence.”
