The star put on an expert striking display to keep Caio Borralho at bay for five rounds to secure his place as the second-ranked contender in the UFC<\/a> middleweight division.<\/p>\n After defeating Borralho, Imavov can now focus on chasing a championship shot against Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>, who won the belt at UFC 319<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former Nassourdine Imavov opponent Israel Adesanya sends a positive message to Caio Borralho after UFC Paris loss<\/p>\n Although fans are all saying his chances against Chimaev are slim, the Frenchman has been waiting for his shot for over a year since picking up victories against the likes of Adesanya.<\/p>\n \u2018The Sniper\u2019 knocked out the \u2018Stylebender\u2019 in the second round of their contest in January to solidify his hopes of becoming the next title contender.<\/p>\n Caio\u2019s loss was the second defeat on the night for the \u2018Fighting Nerds\u2019 group after Mauricio Ruffy was submitted by Benoit Saint-Denis in the co-main event.<\/p>\n While it was two bad defeats for the team, the Nigerian was quick to tell both men to ignore the critics.<\/p>\n On his YouTube channel, the star was asked to send a message to the two men. He said: \u201cJust keep doing what you are doing. Because people will start saying now, \u2018Oh, retire\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThese f- \u2013 \u2013 ing incels don\u2019t know s- \u2013 -. So, they just have to go back to the drawing board. Keep doing what they\u2019re doing. Keep leveling up and they\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n Nassourdine Imavov is confident of a UFC title shot and is unfazed by UFC Vancouver main event<\/p>\n While the Brazilian will have to fight his way back into the title picture, Nassourdine is ready to seize an opportunity he believes he deserves.<\/p>\n But there are also two other contenders set to do battle who believe they deserve their shot.<\/p>\n Reinier de Ridder and Anthony Hernandez compete in the UFC Vancouver main event, which has been billed as the number one contender contest for the Chechen\u2019s title.<\/p>\n The 29-year-old is more than confident that he will get his shot at the belt before the winner of that contest.<\/p>\n Speaking to Full Send MMA during fight week, he said: \u201cWho\u2019s fighting in Vancouver? RDR (smiles)? I\u2019m the next, I\u2019m not even worried about the next fight.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, you have to be realistic. No one did what I did for the sport in the last year. Five Top 10 guys, two finishes. I mean, no one did that.\u201d<\/p>\n The win over Borralho is now his 11th win over a fighter in the UFC Top 10, and a title shot is a matter of when, not if, for the pride of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya watched on as former opponent Nassourdine Imavov won a dominant decision in the UFC main event.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,38614,786,785,80736,85,787,59037],"class_list":{"0":"post-127652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-caio-borralho","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-nassourdine-imavov","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc","16":"tag-ufc-paris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127652","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=127652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nassourdine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2234058787-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC<\/p>\n