Strickland rematch 'more exciting than the belt'

Nassourdine Imavov believes he has done enough to secure the title, but there is one fight he would prioritize.

Imavov (15-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) stifled Brendan Allen's (24-6 MMA, 12-3 UFC) wrestling en route to a unanimous decision victory in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 243 co-main event at Accor Arena.

“Of course, the following will be about fighting for the belt, but if the belt is not there, I want to stay busy and fight whoever is ahead of me in the rankings,” Imavov said via email interpreter during the press conference after the fight.

If a title fight isn't next for Imavov, he's eyeing a rematch with Sean Strickland – the last fighter to beat him.

“Of course it would be a great pleasure for me to do that,” Imavov said. “It’s even more exciting than the belt to fight Strickland and get my revenge.”

If Strickland ends up getting his title shot rematch with champion Dricus Du Plessis, Imavov will be happy to face another former champion in Israel Adesanya.

“I saw a lot of media talking about it,” Imavov said on Adesanya. “It would be my great pleasure to fight him and I think it would be a great fight.”

Imavov was happy to beat Allen at his own game. Even though he spent the entire first round flat on his back, he wanted to prove that he could also perform at his best on the ground.

“I wanted to show that my BJJ brown belt that I got from MK Team wasn’t nothing,” Imavov said. “It's very important to me, so I wanted to show that my ground game is very good, and because I made a little mistake in the first round, he kept me on the ground the whole round, I wanted to show my wrestling and grappling. “Skills in the next two rounds.”

For more information on the card, check out MMA Junkie's UFC Fight Night 243 event hub.