Over the weekend, we learned of a massive matchup that’s being added to UFC Paris in September. A huge middleweight matchup with top of the rankings implications. Fight Minds was the first to report that booking over the weekend that top middleweight contenders Nassourdine Imavov (14-4) and Brendan Allen (24-5) will go toe-to-toe in Paris.
UFC Paris will go down on September 28th. For Imavov, he’s going to be looking for his third straight win in front of his home crowd. “The Russian Sniper” fights out of France and he’s coming off a huge TKO win over Jared Cannonier. Granted, there was some controversy with the finish, but Imavov was taking control in that matchup.
Prior to that, Imavov dominated Roman Dolidze over the course of five rounds back in February. Going back to July 2021, Imavov is 5-1, 1 NC in seven fights. The No Contest was against Chris Curtis in a fight he was well in control of. The lone loss was a decision loss against former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland.
UFC Paris
Speaking of Chris Curtis and Sean Strickland, those have been the only two guys to defeat Brendan Allen in the UFC. Allen earned himself a contract on The Contender Series back in 2019 and immediately won his first three fights which included a submission win over Kevin Holland.
Allen was stopped in the second round by Strickland. He bounced back with two straight wins before getting stopped by Chris Curtis. Since his loss to Curtis, he’s been dominant. Allen is a perfect 7-0 which includes a decision win over Chris Curtis which avenged his prior loss to The Action Man.
Allen is knocking on the door of UFC title contention and he needs a top five win. As of today, Imavov is currently ranked fourth so a win over him would be a top five win and his eighth win in a row. Huge middleweight implications with this one.