Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is set to face Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Fight Night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
UFC CEO Dana White has been in talks with Saudi Arabia MMA promoters, and it seems everything is all set for the fight. In a post on Instagram, he announced that Nigeria fighter Israel Adesanya will be having his first non-title fight against Imavov in February.
Israel Adesanya, once unbeaten with a 20-0 record and a dominant reign at middleweight. However, he has had a downward spiral in recent years in his last few bouts.
“The Last Stylebender” suffered his first career loss to Jan Błachowicz at UFC 259 in a bid for the light heavyweight title. The Nigerian-New Zealander defended the belt against Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker, and Jared Cannonier.
Unfortunately, his winning streak ended when he went up against Alex Pereira at UFC 281 and lost the belt. Luckily, he reclaimed it one fight later with a spectacular KO victory over “Poatan” at UFC 287.
It seemed the fighter was on the rise till he suffered defeat at the hands of Sean Strickland at UFC 293. He subsequently lost a chance to reclaim the title from Dricus Du Plessis by submission this past August. This upcoming fight could be crucial to getting Adesanya back into title contention.
The 29-year-old Imavov is less experienced than the 24-4 Adesanya, posting a record of 15-4 with one no-contest in 20 career bouts.
However, since losing to Strickland by a unanimous decision in 2023, Imavov is undefeated. His fight against Christ Curtis was ruled a no-contest due to an accidental headbutt, and he followed that up with wins over Roman Dolidze, Jared Cannonier and Brendan Allen.
Imavov has never vied for a championship, but beating Adesanya would give him the type of signature win he needs to be considered a contender.
Other fights on the main card include:
Israel Adesanya vs. Nassourdine Imavov (middleweight main event)
Shara Magomedov vs. Michael Page (middleweight co-main event)
Ikram Aliskerov vs. Andre Muniz (middleweight)
Sergei Pavlovich vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (heavyweight)
Said Nurmagomedov vs. Vinicius Oliveira (bantamweight)
Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Jamal Pogues (heavyweight)
Bogdan Grad vs. Lucas Alexander (featherweight)
Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady vs. Jordan Leavitt (lightweight)
Jasmine Jasudavicius vs. Mayra Bueno Silva (women’s flyweight)
Shamil Gaziev vs. Thomas Petersen (heavyweight)
Muhammad Naimov vs. Kaan Ofli (featherweight)
Terrance McKinney vs. Damir Hadžović (lightweight)
