Nassourdine Imavov is a man not afraid to demand what he wants, and he did exactly that last night. After defeating Roman Dolidze by unanimous decision, Imavov sounded off on the microphone.
Imavov controlled the fight on the feet from the get go, except for a few moments in the clinch when Dolidze was trying to survive. Imavov lost a point in the fourth round due to an illegal kick. This meant that one of the scorecards was a draw.
Dolidze put his hand down to prevent himself from getting kneed or kicked, but Imavov kicked him anyway. The rule received more flak last night amidst the fact an official in California is mulling a rule change.
Amidst this, a fighter in Dolidze’s corner, Chris Curtis, began to chirp at Nassourdine Imavov. Imavov almost went after him during the break for the foul. Despite this, Herb Dean managed to defuse the situation.
Nassourdine Imavov on Chris Curtis
Curtis and Imavov do not like each other stemming from the clash of heads in their fight last year. The clash resulted in a no contest after Imavov appeared to be winning for a round and a half, and Curtis was unable to continue.
“I was upset because the guy Chris Curtis keeps talking in every fight he’s cornering,” Imavov said at the UFC Fight Night 235 post-fight press conference. “Keeps talking to me. This is not his job as a cornerman to talk to the fighter. When I went to the cage against him, he was very silent. He got dominated and he even quit the fight because of the headbutt so you know, I just want him to stop talking and let me fight.”
Regardless, Imavov emerged victorious last night and thanked his team while calling for a rematch against Sean Strickland. He beat Imavov in January 2023. Strickland is the former UFC middleweight champion of the world, who lost his belt to Dricus Du Plessis in a very close fight in his first defense.
Imavov Takes the Mic
Nassourdine Imavov made it clear what he wants going forward. The 28-year-old French middleweight wants to make things even against Strickland.
“The fight camp was absolutely good, I want to thank all my coaches, first of all Nicholas Ott, second Ilian [Bouafia] one of my training partners, Issa Samake, the boxing coach and of course my brother [Daguir Imavov], I talked about him the first time I came to the UFC. He’s a phenomenal fighter, his record is 15-3 and I can’t wait for him to fight in the UFC,” Imavov said. “But regarding my performance and my next fight, I wanna fight against Sean Strickland.”
Imavov took on Strickland as a short-notice replacement in January as a replacement for Kelvin Gastelum. Because the fight was so short notice, the two clashed at 205 pounds. Strickland earned a decision win, and won the middleweight title two fights later after beating Abus Magomedov and Israel Adesanya.
Regardless of who his next fight is, Imavov heads towards a title shot with every impressive performance. It’s only up from here for the Frenchman.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
