Nassourdine Imavov isn’t upset at Dana White and the UFC brass for making top of the middleweight division a four-man grand prix situation.
It all kicks off with Imavov facing Caio Borralho in the main event of UFC Paris this Saturday, with the winner having a chance to face new champion Khamzat Chimaev. While a lot of the MMA community wasn’t overly thrilled with Chimaev’s performance, Imavov found it quite impressive.
“I was expecting a victory for Khamzat, but I wasn’t expecting [that kind of victory]
dominating for five rounds like he did.
“I understand when you’re not as well-versed in MMA, you don’t know MMA that well, [that] can be a boring fight because you don’t necessarily understand the techniques that are happening. For me, as a practitioner, as a champion in the sport, I see the technical aspect of it and keeping a champion like a DDP for five rounds on the ground, it’s something very technical to be made, and I was very impressed with that.”
Imavov is on an impressive win streak, including a knockout win over Israel Adesanya in his most recent bout at UFC Saudi Arabia in February. Many believed he deserved a title shot more than Chimaev did, but Imavov understood why the promotion went the way they did.
When the bout between Imavov and Borralho was booked, it was assumed it would be a title eliminator, but Dana White said that wasn’t necessarily the case with the addition of Reinier de Ridder vs. Anthony Hernandez at UFC Vancouver. The best performance will win out to get a title shot.
Imavov was asked if he was disappointed in the UFC CEO making that announcement.
“No, I’m not disappointed,” Imavov said. “I know what I’m worth, and after this fight, I’m going to be the No. 1 contender for the belt, and I know that what I’ve done in the weight class, no one else has done it. Like if you talk about those three contenders, they didn’t do what I did.”
Imavov is going to look to shut Borralho down, and make him pay for a lot of the “ducking” comments he’s made along the way. Borralho is 7-0 inside the octagon and looks to get himself a championship opportunity.
When asked about Borralho’s comments what he was ducking him, Imavov shrugged it off as Borralho just being a big fan of his.
“No, you don’t want to be naive, you don’t want to trust liars,” Imavov explained. “He’s been lying many times before. I didn’t even know him before he started to call me out. I wasn’t watching his fights.
“For me, it was just a fan following me on Instagram. I don’t need that kind of fan. I mean, if he wants to stop following me on social media, it’s going to be good [for] me. Don’t need that.
The crowd in Paris will be electric, as it usually is, and now Imavov gets to compete in the main event at Accor Arena – which is more to him than just a local guy fighting in front of a local crowd.
“It’s going to be the third time I fight in Paris,” Imavov said. “I love fighting in Paris in front of my crowd. Great energy. It’s going to be as much of a responsibility as a privilege to be fighting in front of my crowd.
“Without a doubt, I’m going to finish him and I’m always, during the fight, going to be looking for the finish.”
Imavov is confident a win on Saturday will get him his shot at Chimaev and the UFC middleweight title – regardless of the result of the UFC Vancouver main event in October.
The question is, if Imavov does get the shot, why is he the guy to hand Chimaev his first loss?
“I’m just different [from] any other guys in the weight class,” Imavov said. “Right now I’m focusing on this fight, but after this fight, we’re going to concentrate on the [Khamzat] and prepare everything well. [But] I’m just different from anyone in the weight class.”
