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Nassourdine Imavov scored the biggest win of his career in the UFC Louisville main event but not without some controversy along the way.
Of course none of that was his fault but Imavov appeared that he was cruising towards a knockout over Jared Cannonier when referee Jason Herzog stepped between the fighters and stopped the action at 1:34 in the fourth round. The end came after Imavov cracked Cannonier with a devastating right hand that put the one-time title challenger on wobbly legs.
Imavov followed up with a calculated combination while being careful not to let Cannonier catch him with something huge while he was wounded but still dangerous. As the offensive onslaught continued, Cannonier was turning his back and trying to find some breathing room but he was still very much conscious and on his feet yet Herzog felt like he saw enough to stop the contest.
The crowd at the KFC Yum! Center was none too happy with the decision but Imavov felt like Herzog was only doing his job.
“I was ready to continue the fight if the fight was willing to continue,” Imavov said after the win. “The referee, that’s his job, that’s what he does on a daily basis. So I think he did the right decision but I was ready to keep going if that was the decision.”
Prior to the questionable stoppage, the middleweights had gone back and forth through the first three rounds with some very close moments during the fight.
Cannonier came out head hunting in the opening round but he also turned to the clinch to slow down Imavov, who showed good speed in the early exchanges. The middleweights were definitely willing to trade fire on the feet with Imavov catching Cannonier with a slick 1-2 combination and then the one-time title challenger hammering him right back with a pair of stiff punches of his own.
While Cannonier was doing a good job inflicting damage on the feet, he kept returning to his clinch to grind on Imavov and possibly wear him down during a five-round fight. When he finally broke free, Imavov snapped off some of his best punches with a slick combination that had Cannonier backing up.
As the fight continued, Imavov started finding a consistent home for a stinging right hand that kept tagging Cannonier on the chin. In return, Cannonier exploded forward with big, heavy shots that forced Imavov to stay wary from overextending himself in those exchanges.
The right hand truly paid off in that fourth round when Imavov stunned Cannonier with the well-timed counter shot that set up the finish. Imavov said afterward that he actually identified that tendency in Cannonier’s game, which exploited during the fight.
“I knew what I was doing,” Imavov said. “I have a lot of experience fighting five round fights. I knew I wanted to pace myself. The goal was to accelerate during the fight in order to finish him at one point.
“We worked a lot on that [right hand] with the team. We worked a lot on this hole in the game in order to counter it.”
It certainly appeared like Imavov was going to get Cannonier out of there but it was unfortunate timing that Herzog stopped the fight rather than allowing the France based fighter to continue his assault to leave no question. Either way, Imavov got a huge win to add to his resume as he becomes the first middleweight to earn a finish over Cannonier and now he’s gunning for a rematch with a former champion.
“My goal is to get the belt,” Imavov said. “I’d like to fight Sean Strickland in Paris. So Sean Strickland, if you want to do it, come to Paris and we’re going to fight together.”
Their first encounter actually took place at light heavyweight with Strickland earning a unanimous decision win back in January 2023. Imavov would obviously like to run it back but it remains to be seen if Strickland has any interest in answering that call.
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