{"id":124550,"date":"2025-09-07T02:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124550\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T02:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T02:37:08","slug":"imavov-calls-next-for-chimaev-after-routing-ufc-main-event-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124550\/","title":{"rendered":"Imavov calls ‘next’ for Chimaev after routing UFC main event"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brett OkamotoSep 7, 2025, 07:04 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n

The UFC’s middleweight division came into sharper focus Saturday when Nassourdine Imavov<\/a> further cemented himself as a potential title challenger with an impressive five-round decision win over Caio Borralho<\/a> in Paris.<\/p>\n

Fighting in front of his home crowd, Imavov (17-4) earned his fifth consecutive win, with all three judges scoring the 185-pound bout for him via scores of 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46.<\/p>\n

The victory could propel Imavov into a championship bid against Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>. The UFC has another high-profile middleweight matchup scheduled in October between Anthony Hernandez<\/a> (15-2) and Reinier de Ridder<\/a> (22-2). That fight could decide Chimaev’s next opponent. Immediately following his win, Imavov said that he had hoped to finish Borralho (17-2) early in the bout Saturday, but adamantly pleaded his case for the next title shot.<\/p>\n

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“Considering the circumstances, I’m really happy with my performance,” Imavov said. “On my right foot, a tendon or something like that let go. It was really painful. I would have liked to get the finish, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

“I am next. [Borralho] was unbeaten for 10 years. I just beat him, and beat him with style, as well. I need to be the next one.”<\/p>\n

According to UFC Stats, Imavov narrowly outlanded Borralho 100-90 in total strikes, but Imavov’s offense was much cleaner than Borralho’s blows and far more damaging. Imavov beautifully slipped Borralho’s punches and landed counters all evening. Imavov maintained a strong presence in the center of the Octagon, as he cut off Borralho’s exits. Imavov also defended all five of Borralho’s takedown attempts.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time Borralho has lost in the UFC, and it marked his first loss overall since 2015.<\/p>\n

Nassourdine Imavov, left, handed Caio Borralho his first MMA loss since 2015 and could be the next challenger for middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev.\u00a0Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/p>\n

“Nassourdine was just the better man today,” Borralho said. “He was very fast, as I was expecting. I couldn’t attack that much. I wanted to make it entertaining for the fans and the UFC, so I tried to strike with one of the best strikers in the world. I think I need to find my adrenaline back. I need some, not motivation, but I was without adrenaline and couldn’t pick it up in this fight.”<\/p>\n

It was a disappointing night for The Fighting Nerds, the Brazilian MMA team that has erupted in recent years with viral knockouts and a string of performance bonuses. In addition to Borralho’s loss, lightweight Mauricio Ruffy<\/a> (12-2) also suffered his first defeat in the UFC. Ruffy, 29, was on the wrong end of a lopsided contest against France’s Benoit Saint Denis<\/a>, who dominated him on the floor before submitting him with a rear-naked choke in the second round.<\/p>\n

French fighters went 5-0 on Saturday’s card.<\/p>\n

Veteran light heavyweight Paul Craig<\/a> (17-10-1), of Scotland, announced his retirement after a TKO loss to Modestas Bukauskas<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoSep 7, 2025, 07:04 AM CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-124550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}