Daniel Cormier still has questions about Nassourdine Imavov’s place in the title picture after UFC Fight Night 258.
Imavov (17-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) scored his fifth-straight win when he outstruck Caio Borralho (17-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) in Saturday’s main event at Accor Arena in Paris.
Imavov called for a title shot after the win, but with Reinier de Ridder and Anthony Hernandez scheduled to face off in the UFC Fight Night 262 headliner Oct. 18 in Vancouver, Cormier thinks he could potentially get leapfrogged by that winner.
“When you’re in the situation that Imavov was in tonight and you get a dominant win like that, make no mistake about it, 4-1 on two scorecards, 5-0 on one scorecard, that’s a dominant win over a very good guy. But is it enough?” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Is it enough for people to go, ‘I don’t care what I see in Hernandez vs. RDR, I know that I watched my No. 1 contender fight when I watched UFC Paris’?
“I don’t like judging on a sliding scale, but being that he was first, being that he was dominant, I think today, people will rush to say he’s the No. 1 contender. But I think that because it wasn’t a finish between either, I think people will want to wait and see because if ‘Fluffy’ can replicate what he did in the last fight. They’ll go, ‘That’s more impressive. That seems more dangerous to Khamzat Chimaev.’ I think (Imavov) did amazing, but I don’t know if it solidified him, and that’s an unfortunate part of mixed martial arts.”
Cormier lauded Imavov for covering up some of the holes many speculated about his ground game when he stuffed all five of Borralho’s takedown attempts.
“If you’re Caio Borralho and you watched (Imavov) fight Israel Adesanya, who is an amazing striker, and beat him in the way that he did, you would think the only way to go and get a victory is to get takedowns. He got none. He struggled. He was very rarely able to get close to takedowns. I think he continues to show the evolution of Imavov’s game. He just gets better and better every time we see him inside the octagon.”
