{"id":128099,"date":"2025-09-08T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128099\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:00:06","slug":"israel-adesanya-on-how-nassourdine-imavov-could-pose-problems-for-khamzat-chimaev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128099\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya on how Nassourdine Imavov could pose problems for Khamzat Chimaev"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Israel Adesanya thinks Nassourdine Imavov cemented himself as No. 1 contender after UFC Fight Night 258.<\/p>\n<p>Imavov (17-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) outstruck Caio Borralho (17-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) en route to a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/ufc-paris-results-nassourdine-imavov-223733644.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:unanimous decision win;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unanimous decision win<\/a> in Saturday&#8217;s main event at Accor Arena in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Adesanya <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/israel-adesanya-thinks-recent-foe-130115568.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:initially picked Borralho to beat Imavov by decision;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">initially picked Borralho to beat Imavov by decision<\/a>, but was impressed with his former foe&#8217;s performance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nassourdine came in and just showed why he&#8217;s the sniper,&#8221; Adesanya said on his <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JNP61nrEbgw?si=e0g3uLeGcoiq3DyN\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:YouTube Channel;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">YouTube Channel<\/a>. &#8220;He was touching him, took it away, 4-1.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Imavov <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/nassourdine-imavov-definitely-next-ufc-004251378.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:called for the next title shot;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">called for the next title shot<\/a> against newly crowned middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), and Adesanya broke down the potential fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think Khamzat vs. Imavov, but I&#8217;m not going to just cancel out Imavov now because of his takedown defense. If he can take away the wrestling from Khamzat, he&#8217;ll give him problems,&#8221; Adesanya said. &#8220;That&#8217;s all you have to do. Khamzat can strike, but I see what I see. His wrestling is his main weapon, and he commits a lot to the wrestling.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He gets the f*cking grip, and he takes people down, keeps them down. If Nassourdine can get past that, he&#8217;ll give Khamzat problems. But right now, Khamzat is on point, and he&#8217;s got the momentum behind him. But so does Imavov. Who&#8217;s going to win? We&#8217;ll see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2025\/09\/08\/ufc-paris-israel-adesanya-prediction-opinion-nassourdine-imavovs-vs-khamzat-chimaev\/86037615007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Israel Adesanya on Nassourdine Imavov&#039;s chances vs. Khamzat Chimaev;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Israel Adesanya on Nassourdine Imavov&#8217;s chances vs. Khamzat Chimaev<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya thinks Nassourdine Imavov cemented himself as No. 1 contender after UFC Fight Night 258. Imavov (17-4&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,38614,786,54075,4120,785,80736,85,44865,9222],"class_list":["post-128099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-caio-borralho","tag-fighting","tag-israel-adesanya","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-nassourdine-imavov","tag-sports","tag-ufc-fight-night","tag-unanimous-decision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128099","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=128099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}