{"id":663932,"date":"2026-05-11T13:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663932\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:38:10","slug":"strickland-wants-imavov-next-i-truly-believe-in-ufc-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/663932\/","title":{"rendered":"Strickland wants Imavov next: \u2018I truly believe in UFC rankings\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">There was a lot of criticism when UFC decided to slot Sean Strickland against Khamzat Chimaev for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-328-live-stream-fight-card-start-time-how-to-watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 328,<\/a> overlooking true No. 1 contender Nassourdine Imavov in the process. But it\u2019s hard to say the promotion was wrong after this weekend\u2019s results: The UFC 328 press conference did massive numbers, bigger than any in years. UFC CEO Dana White said the event metrics were huge. And Strickland went and beat Chimaev <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-328-live-stream-fight-card-start-time-how-to-watch\/442851\/scorecards-pivotal-5th-round-earns-sean-strickland-split-decision-win-over-khamzat-chimaev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">via split decision,<\/a> proving he was worthy of the shot after all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Now \u201cTarzan\u201d says he hopes the UFC goes back to more traditional matchmaking where the top guy in the ranking fights the champion. That would be Imavov, coincidentally a guy that Strickland already beat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2023\/1\/15\/23555931\/ufc-vegas-67-results-biggest-winners-loser-from-strickland-vs-imavov-last-night-espn-mma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">back in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cThey say Nassourdine is next,\u201d Strickland said at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-328-live-stream-fight-card-start-time-how-to-watch\/442476\/watch-ufc-328-post-fight-press-conference-live-stream-video-khamzat-vs-strickland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 328 post-fight press conference.<\/a> \u201cI will take a little breather. I want to go support my boy Alex [Pereira] at the White House. I want to watch him make history and get that third belt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cMe and my girl have been in camp for over six months, and you guys know how camp is. We don\u2019t do things on weekends, we don\u2019t travel, we don\u2019t go out to eat. She\u2019s pretty much my dietitian. I am going to give her a break. Give me a little time, let my broken nose heal, and let\u2019s get back in there and get some fights going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI truly believe in UFC rankings,\u201d he added. \u201cI think they f&#8211;king matter. I hate when guys jump it. So if that\u2019s who the UFC [wants], if that\u2019s the rankings, that\u2019s who it is. Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Imavov, who hasn\u2019t fought since a September 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-results\/387596\/ufc-paris-results-nassourdine-imavov-picks-apart-caio-borralho-demands-title-fight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">win over Caio Borralho,<\/a> showed his interest by tweeting \u201cI\u2019m gonna put your lights out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cF&#8211;king Nassourdine, are you really getting me on this f&#8211;king racism again?\u201d\u201d Strickland responded. \u201cNo, I can\u2019t avoid the racism, come on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a lot of criticism when UFC decided to slot Sean Strickland against Khamzat Chimaev for UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-663932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663932","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=663932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}