Nassourdine
Imavov hasn’t been guaranteed a title shot against Khamzat
Chimaev.
Imavov recently revealed that the
UFC brass originally wanted to match him against Chimaev in
December 2025. The potential timeline was later postponed to this
past February, but Chimaev was injured. Imavov says that although
matchmaker Mick Maynard recently reiterated his interest in the
matchup, nothing has been confirmed yet.
Multiple Delays
“No final news yet, no contract signed,” Imavov told MMAFighting.com. “One of the last discussions I
had with Hunter Campbell and Mick Maynard in Qatar – They told me
that they wanted to schedule the fight against Khamzat for
December, then for February. But Khamzat got injured. We spoke
recently with Mick Maynard, and they want to see the fight happen,
but we don’t have final approval.”
Imavov (17-4) is widely considered the most deserving middleweight
title contender with wins over Roman
Dolidze, Jared
Cannonier, Brendan
Allen, Israel
Adesanya and Caio
Borralho in his last five outings. However, former champ
Sean
Strickland re-entered the title picture by knocking out
Anthony
Hernandez at
UFC Houston last weekend. Imavov has since been calling for a
chance to avenge his previous loss against Strickland, dating back
to 2023. Meanwhile, Strickland is eyeing a title shot against
Chimaev, who doesn’t seem opposed to the idea.