The French middleweight boxer earned the most significant win of his career to date, defeating Cannonier by fourth-round technical knockout in the main event of UFC on ESPN 57 on Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Imavov dropped his opponent with a clean right hand, but Cannonier appeared to regain his composure as referee Jason Herzog stopped the bout at 1 minute, 34 seconds into the fourth round.
Herzog was heavily criticised afterwards, but Imavov believes the veteran umpire got the call right.
“It’s the referee’s job to decide if a fighter can continue or not,” Imavov said in the post-fight press conference. “The fighter suffered a lot of damage and if the fight continued he would suffer even more damage, so I think it was the right decision to stop the fight.”
For Imavov, the build-up to the finishing sequence was slow, with Cannonier on his feet early on, but the MMA Factory representative getting stronger as the bout went on, and it was all going according to plan for Imavov, who will be competing in his third main event on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the game plan to start too early, I mostly fight five rounds. [fights] “I’m not on the same pace right now,” he said. “In my opinion, the only thing I lost was the first round.”
Imavov would have liked to have beaten Cannonier sooner, but defeating opponents at the highest level of the sport takes time.
“That’s exactly what I wanted. I was hoping for a finish,” Imavov said. “Even if it ended early, [have been] “I’m getting better, but the problem is that it takes time to beat my opponent. A lot of people criticized my cardiovascular system, but in this fight I proved that my cardiovascular system is very good and I beat him in the fourth round. I’m happy.”
Imavov called out Sean Strickland after his most recent win and reiterated the request in the post-fight press conference. Imavov lost a unanimous decision to Strickland in a short-notice light heavyweight bout at UFC Fight Night 217 in January 2023. Whatever the future holds, the 29-year-old Imavov believes the best is yet to come.
“All I know is I’m 28 years old and I put in a dominant performance against one of the best players. [fighters] “I’m not at my best in this weight class yet, and I can get better,” he said. “I’m good enough already to win titles and belts, but the further I go, the better I can get.”
