If money is the reason Sean Strickland won’t fight Nassourdine Imavov again, then Imavov is prepared to put up his own cash to make the bout happen.
The UFC announced its big year end card last weekend, and it’s a good one. UFC 335 on December 12th will feature Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes for the BMF belt, Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich in a five round heavyweight contender’s match, and a middleweight scrap between Joe Pyfer and Bo Nickal.
On the same night, we learned what could have been:
middleweight champion Sean Strickland was in talks with the UFC to headline the card against Nassourdine Imavov. The only sticking point? Money. Strickland wasn’t shy about saying the UFC needed to come correct to make the fight happen, something that obviously didn’t happen by the time UFC 335 was announced.
Now Imavov is looking forward to UFC 336 in January, and he’s throwing cash into the pot to try and nudge the fight along.
“If it’s really about money, I’ll put $500K of my own money on the line if you beat me in January,” Imavov wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Imavov hasn’t fought since a September 2025 decision win over Caio Borralho at UFC Paris that he felt locked him in as the No. 1 contender at 185 pounds. But instead of matching Imavov with Khamzat Chimaev, the UFC went instead with the more popular Strickland instead. Now it’s been a year and Imavov is still waiting.
“Sean Strickland, putting this on record, if you still don’t take it, then you’re just scared,” Imavov continued. “I’ll handle you outside. UFC, THIS is your champ? Come on STRIP HIM.”
It’s not well-remembered, but Strickland and Imavov have fought before. The two competed in January 2023 at the top of a UFC Apex card with “Tarzan” taking a dull 49–46, 49–46, and 48–47 unanimous decision. Neither the fight nor the ratings were particularly good for that one, so we’re not surprised the UFC doesn’t want to rain money down to make a rematch.
That being said, Sean Strickland vs. Khamzat Chimaev was one of the promotion’s biggest fights of the year, and that’s because Strickland knows how to move the needle. In a day and age where the promotion doesn’t have many such men, should they really be trying to short change a guy because the legit No. 1 contender isn’t super popular?
For now, the UFC remains in a standoff with Strickland over pay, and you never know how crazy Sean is willing to get in such a situation. Let’s hope we see Strickland vs. Imavov sometime in early 2026.
