Nassourdine Imavov thinks he’s done enough to earn a title shot, but there’s one fight he’d prioritize.
Imavov (15-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) stifled Brendan Allen’s (24-6 MMA, 12-3 UFC) grappling en route to a unanimous decision win in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 243 co-main event at Accor Arena.
“Of course, the following is going to be to fight for the belt, but if the belt is not here, I want to keep being busy, and I want to fight anyone in front of me in the rankings,” Imavov said through an interpreter during the post-fight news conference.
If a title shot isn’t next for Imavov, he has his eyes on a rematch with Sean Strickland – the last fighter to beat him.
“Of course, it would be a great pleasure for me to do it,” Imavov said. “It’s even more exciting than the belt to fight against Strickland and to take my revenge.”
If Strickland ends up getting his title-fight rematch with champion Dricus Du Plessis, Imavov is happy to fight another former champion in Israel Adesanya.
“I’ve seen a lot of media talking about it,” Imavov said on Adesanya. “It would be a great pleasure to go against him, and I think it would be a great fight.”
Imavov was happy to beat Allen in his own game. Although he spent the entire Round 1 flat on his back, he wanted to prove his ground game is elite, too.
“I wanted to show that my BJJ brown belt that I got from MK Team is not nothing,” Imavov said. “It’s very important to me so, I wanted to show that my ground game is very good, and because I did a small mistake in the first round, he held me on the ground the whole round, I wanted to show my wrestling, grappling skills in the next two rounds.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 243.
