After a close first round against a former champion in the biggest fight of his career, and in his third UFC main event in four fights, Nassourdine Imavov (16-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) took out ex-middleweight champ Israel Adesanya (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) with a swarming knockout 30 seconds into the second round.
The middleweight bout was the UFC Fight Night 250 main event at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Adesanya kicked high and to the body in the first few seconds. A minute in, Imavov got inside for a quick combination, but had to fend off a high kick from the ex-champ on the exit. When Imavov stayed after a slightly sloppy double-leg takedown, Adesanya turned tables on him and pulled off a short throw of his own in defense. Moments later, he again staved off an Imavov clinch attempt.
With about 70 seconds left in the opening frame, just when it looked like Adesanya had mastered the range against Imavov with stance switches and general evasiveness, Imavov popped Adesanya’s head back with a tight uppercut to make an impression.
In the second, Adesanya complained of an eye poke and got a brief stoppage. But he very quickly asked Marc Goddard to get things going again. And no sooner did that happen, Imavov drilled Adesanya with a right hand and put him on the canvas. Imavov pounced on him on the fence immediately, and a left uppercut along the cage was worse. Several more punches from Imavov, and things were done in a stunner.
“I said it all week long that I was in perfect shape,” Imavov told Paul Felder in his post-fight interview. “I proved it tonight that I was the better striker. Now the real bonus for me is going to be to fight for the belt”.
The loss was Adesanya’s third straight – and his first in a non-title fight. In fact, the fight was his first non-title fight in about six years.
Imavov now can make a great case for a middleweight title shot. He has won seven of his past eight fights, and the lone loss in that stretch was up a weight class at light heavyweight against ex-middleweight champ Sean Strickland. Along with Adesanya, his four-fight winning streak features a stoppage of recent title challenger Jared Cannonier.
