Nassourdine Imavov

ANALYSIS
Imavov will compete against Allen in the middleweight division. Imavov has won his last two outings but will likely look to avoid taking the fight to the ground, as Allen has won five of his last seven contests by rear naked choke submission.

ANALYSIS
If you saw Imavov after the first round of this fight, you would have never thought this result was possible. He clearly lost the frame and appeared dead tired, having to essentially be held up by his coaches in between rounds. He improved a little bit in Rounds 2 and 3, aided by a clearly tiring Cannonier. One massive right hand sent Jared stumbling early in Round 4, and Imavov took full advantage. He followed up with countless damaging strikes, and while Cannonier was wobbly, he still appeared to be hanging on, if by a thread. That wasn't enough for referee Jason Herzog, however, who pulled the plug. The stoppage was definitely early, but Imavov was impressive nonetheless. The 29-year-old improves to 5-1 (1NC) in his past seven bouts, with the one loss during that stretch coming against former UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland.

ANALYSIS
After a winless 2023 that included a loss and a no-contest, Imavov got back in the win column in February with a majority decision over Roman Dolidze -- a fight in which he won the significant striking battle 112-to-34. He now looks to build momentum against a former title challenger in Cannonier, who also happens to be coming off a torn MCL suffered last October. Cannonier had been on a two-fight winning streak prior to that, however, including a victory over Sean Strickland, who Imavov had previously lost to. In this fight, Imavov has the edge in height, while Cannonier has the reach advantage.

ANALYSIS
This fight was lopsided from start to finish, and it's concerning one of the judges actually scored it a draw. Imavov nearly finished Dolidze in Round 1 to the tune of an easy 10-8 score. He continued to lead the way the entire fight, with his only misstep being getting docked a point by referee Herb Dean for an illegal knee in Round 4. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. Imavov lapped Dolidze on the feet with a massive edge in terms of both speed and technical striking skill. Nassourdine isn't a great grappler, and he's displayed no real ability to grapple against better competition, but he certainly has the stand-up skills to go toe-to-toe with any fighter on the UFC roster at 185 pounds in a kickboxing match. Given the bad blood between he and Chris Curtis (who was cornering Dolidze here), perhaps the UFC looks to re-book the two after their fight last June was ruled a no-contest following an accidental clash of heads.

ANALYSIS
Visa issues forced Imavov to withdraw from his matchup with Ikram Aliskerov in October, but his next fight is now on the schedule. Dolidze has also had some scheduling issues, with his last two scheduled opponents dropping out.