Sean Strickland is once again the middleweight champion.<\/p>\n
According to top contender Nassourdine Imavov, he\u2019s \u201c100 percent fighting for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy next fight is (for) the belt,\u201d Imavov told Jaiden Cable<\/a> (via MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cBefore the fight with Strickland and Khamzat, I wanted to fight Dricus (Du Plessis) to stay active, and the UFC told me I could fight only for the belt. After Khamzat vs. Strickland, I\u2019m 100 percent fighting for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do not like him, he\u2019s not a good person,\u201d Imavov added. \u201cHe talks shit every day. We already fought before, and he insulted me several times. Even during his fight week with Khamzat, he called me a terrorist. It\u2019s such bullshit that it\u2019s hard not to want to rip his head off. It\u2019s very personal. I think he\u2019s the only fighter in the UFC where it\u2019s so personal.\u201d<\/p>\n Imavov (17-4, 1 NC) is undefeated since losing to Strickland, racking up five straight wins with a pair of knockout finishes over longtime middleweight contender Jared Cannonier<\/a> and former division champion Israel Adesanya<\/a>. The only downside to the 31-year-old Imavov is his marketability, which goes a long way in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Strickland is once again the middleweight champion. According to top contender Nassourdine Imavov, he\u2019s \u201c100 percent fighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,1647],"class_list":["post-817255","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-upcoming-ufc-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817255","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=817255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}