While Nassourdine Imavov wonders if he’ll still get the next UFC middleweight title shot, the top contender says the promotion was ready to pull the trigger on the matchup with Khamzat Chimaev.
Imavov has won five straight bouts, all against top-10 opponents, and heading into 2026, many believed “The Sniper” was a shoo-in to face Chimaev. As of now, Imavov and his team feels they deserve to get the next call, and the 29-year-old says the UFC was hoping for the fight to have already taken place.
“So, no final news yet,” Imavov told MMA Fighting. “No contract signed or whatever. One of the last discussions I had with them was with Hunter Campbell and Mick Maynard in Doha, Qatar when it was a Doha event. And the thing that they told me is that they wanted to schedule the fight against Khamzat for December, then for February, but then Khamzat got injured and they were thinking about when they can [have] this fight.
“But nothing confirmed yet. We spoke recently with Mick Maynard, the matchmaker, and he was [talking about] the fight against Khamzat, but we don’t have final approval, or whatever.”
Chimaev captured the middleweight title with a one-sided decision win against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 319 this past August. In a December interview with ESPN, Chimaev discussed a possible fight with Imavov, and a slight reluctance to it due to being friendly, and also the possible political ramifications.
“He’s a good guy,” Chimaev said. “I know him, he knows me, we know each other. If you ask me, I don’t want to fight this guy, because we know each other. Like [he’s] a Muslim. He’s from Dagestan. You know how Dagestan [and] Chechen people are like, it’s a little bit like a lot of drama on the internet, and all this [stuff] I don’t like about it.
“But if UFC wants it, I’m never going to say no. If the guy wants it – I tell his manager as well: ‘Brother, if Nassourdine wants, I’m going to be open.’ If he says he can wait until I move up, that would be great. But I’m not going to say, ‘No, I don’t want to fight this guy.’ For me it doesn’t matter.”
Imavov was asked to respond to Chimaev’s comments, and says he feels the same way the champion does.
“Of course, I heard what Khamzat said and I 100 percent agree with him,” Imavov said. “We are in the same position, we know each other, and everything. But like he said, if the UFC want to put this fight [together], they will go in and they will go full inside the cage, and that’s it.
“So I saw a lot of comments and everything on Twitter about [me] and Khamazt not willing to fight [against] each other and everything. No, that’s not the truth. The only thing is that right now it’s for the belt, so it’s for the belt. It’s in the hands of the UFC, and UFC puts the fight they want for the belt. And if they call Nassourdine to fight Khamzat, or Khamzat to fight Nassourdine, that’s the same, but both [of us] will say yes, and we will go full at it.”
The title picture at 185 pounds isn’t as clear today as it was following Imavov’s dominant decision win over Caio Borralho in the main event of UFC Paris this past September. This past Saturday, Sean Strickland finished Anthony Hernandez in the third round of the UFC Houston main event, and considering the UFC’s modern business model, there’s a lot of chatter about Strickland possibly leapfrogging Imavov.
The other hurdle in regards to a Chimaev vs. Imavov matchup is Chimaev saying he wants to move up to the light heavyweight division, targeting current champion Alex Pereira for a superfight. UFC CEO recently said he’d like to see Chimaev defend his title once before considering making a move up to another division.
Imavov isn’t surprised Chimaev wants to make the move up to the 205-pound division.
“I know him, he’s really heavy for the middleweight division and that’s why he wants to go up to 205,” Imavov explained. “Now Dana said he doesn’t want someone to go up without defending. So if Dana says it, it’s like this. And that’s the UFC who manages everything at the end.
“But if we speak about Khamzat going up, like we saw some exceptions in the past and everything, and Khamzat is, maybe, a big enough star to go up without defending, but it doesn’t matter in the end. It will be the choice of the UFC. And me? I’m ready for whatever.”
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