{"id":125737,"date":"2025-09-07T15:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/125737\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T15:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T15:01:05","slug":"khamzat-title-fight-still-up-for-grabs-after-ho-hum-imavov-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/125737\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamzat title fight still up for grabs after ho-hum Imavov victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I was impressed by Imavov\u2019s victory. I expected Borralho to win a close fight, but instead the French standout took a clear victory on the strength of his boxing. He was routinely able to land the sharper, more powerful punches for 25 minutes. He shut down all of his opponent\u2019s takedown attempts with relative ease. Objectively, it was a good win, one that caps off an excellent streak of five victories over Top 10<\/a> opponents. By any merit-based metric, Imavov is clearly the next fighter in line<\/a> for a shot at Khamzat Chimaev\u2019s belt.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for \u201cSniper,\u201d UFC does not operate on merit<\/a>. Even with the death of pay-per-view (PPV) and the guaranteed money from Paramount<\/a>, the promotion operates on optics and spectacle. Khamzat is a superstar and the most popular new champion on the roster, and each of his fights will be as big a show as UFC can manage.<\/p>\n

This performance didn\u2019t excite anyone. The French fan base, general Imavov supporters, and fight fans who want UFC to make matches based on their own rankings system still want to see him receive his deserved title shot, but nobody new was likely to be swayed. Imavov didn\u2019t push the action or really lean on his advantages. He was content to win on narrow margins, a handful of punches or couple of big combinations per round. He never hurt Borralho, there were extended periods of staring, and Imavov also landed at least four fouls across 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

It was a good win, but not a performance that makes Imavov undeniable. As such, the door is still open for Reinier de Ridder or Anthony Hernandez to swoop in and steal Imavov\u2019s shot<\/a>, even if their own win streaks would be comparably worse. Worse yet, that matchup feels guaranteed to deliver a level of violence and entertainment that Imavov could not.<\/p>\n

There are two possible outcomes to \u201cRDR\u201d vs. \u201cFluffy.\u201d On one hand, de Ridder could land a bunch of spearing knees that buckle the wrestler and leave his neck open. Conversely, Hernandez might throw the Dutchman on his back and smash him within an inch of his life<\/a> like he just did to Roman Dolidze. Regardless, a high level of drama feels guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Again, I believe Imavov deserves the next 185-pound shot. His win streak is incredible, and the 29-year-old has clearly come into his prime and become a truly elite Middleweight. By failing to really make a statement in Paris after Dana White\u2019s ambiguous title talks<\/a>, however, it feels likely that Imavov ends up on the bench for a while or forced to fight again before scoring a dance with the champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t get me wrong, I was impressed by Imavov\u2019s victory. I expected Borralho to win a close fight,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,45879,6656],"class_list":["post-125737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-espn-fight-night","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125737","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=125737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}