Chimaev\u2019s favour in a 60\/40 fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Caio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2151326200-1024x693.jpg\")
Photo by Alexandre Loureiro\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images<\/p>\n
But his UFC Paris adversary has taken aim at Borralho for accepting the spot that he had declined.<\/p>\n
\u2018My leftovers\u2019 \u2013 the UFC backup opponent for Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev, slammed for taking the position<\/p>\n
French middleweight Nassourdine Imavov was offered the opportunity to take over from either main event fighter if something were to happen, but refused.<\/p>\n
Speaking to MMA Junkie with the help of a translator, Imavov explained why he was against being the reserve competitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Ok, if the title fight is in August and I have to be the backup, then I don\u2019t want to train for nothing. I don\u2019t want to train for nothing,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be in the best condition for my fight. That\u2019s why I said, \u2018No, I won\u2019t come. Maybe they\u2019ll put Caio at this place.\u2019 But right now, I\u2019m only focusing on Caio in Paris. Bring him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nassourdine then slammed his Brazilian foe for saying he was \u2018honoured\u2019 to have the opportunity.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old continued: \u201cHe agreed to that because he was honoured to be the backup, but he\u2019s just taking my leftovers because I declined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nassourdine Imavov sends a strong message to \u2018boring fighter\u2019 Caio Borralho<\/p>\n
\u2018The Sniper\u2019 is coming into the main event with a four-fight win streak, with a marquee stoppage victory over former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.<\/p>\n
He is riding high on confidence and wants to put in an incredible performance against \u2018The Natural\u2019.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Imavov continued: \u201cFor me, I\u2019ll make this fight in spectacular fashion. It\u2019s important for me to show people that I can make a boring fighter, a great fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
A win in the fight would take him one step closer to the UFC 319 middleweight title winner, but he could have to take a bout against Reinier de Ridder after his Robert Whittaker victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UFC 319 backup opponent has received criticism from his next opponent. Caio Borralho has been brought in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,20207,786,4120,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-53602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dricus-du-plessis","tag-fighting","tag-khamzat-chimaev","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53602","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=53602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}