Nassourdine
Imavov wants to run it back against Sean
Strickland after his majority decision win over Roman
Dolidze in the main event at
UFC Fight Night 235.
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Imavov outstruck Dolidze on the feet for the majority of the bout,
but he was consistently slowed down by desperate clinching from the
Georgian. The French middleweight was also hurt by a point
deduction due to an illegal kick in the fourth round, which led to
the final scorecards being closer than expected.
Imavov subsequently thanked his team and called for a rematch
against r Strickland, who handed him his last loss in January
2023.
“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 faced Strickland on short notice as a replacement for
Kelvin
Gastelum at UFC Fight Night 217. Strickland went on to earn a
decision victory in the makeshift light heavyweight bout, and he
would become middleweight champion two fights later when he upset
Israel
Adesanya at UFC 293. Strickland’s title reign was short lived,
as he lost his strap to Dricus Du
Plessis in a closely-contested split decision at UFC 297 last
month.
Imavov’s illegal strike to the head of Dolidze incited a reaction
from teammate Chris
Curtis, who was in Dolidze’s corner and has bad blood with the
Frenchman stemming from their June 2023 meeting. A worked-up Imavov
was seen heading towards Dolidze’s corner during a pause in the
action before referee Herb Dean
warned him about potential disqualification.
Imavov faced Curtis at UFC 289 and appeared to be winning for a
round and a half before an accidental clash of heads rendered
“Action-Man” unable to continue, leading to an anti-climactic no
contest. Speaking about his exchange with Curtis, Imavov noted that
the Xtreme Couture product wasn’t running his mouth when they met
inside the Octagon.
“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.”