Nassourdine Imavov secured a controversial victory over Jared Cannonier in the UFC Louisville main event after referee Jason Herzog stopped the fight in the fourth round, despite Cannonier still being conscious, leading to mixed reactions from the crowd and Imavov expressing readiness to continue if needed.
Nassourdine Imavov scored the biggest win of his career in the UFC Louisville main event, but not without some controversy along the way. None of that was his fault, though.
Imavov appeared to be cruising towards a knockout over Jared Cannonier when referee Jason Herzog stepped in. The action stopped at 1:34 in the fourth round.
The end came after Imavov cracked Cannonier with a devastating right hand. This put the one-time title challenger on wobbly legs.
Imavov followed up with a calculated combination. He was careful not to let Cannonier catch him with something huge.
As the offensive onslaught continued, Cannonier turned his back, trying to find some breathing room. He was still conscious and on his feet, but Herzog felt he saw enough to stop the contest.
The crowd at the KFC Yum! Center was none too happy with the decision. Imavov, however, felt like Herzog was only doing his job.
“I was ready to continue the fight if the fight was willing to continue,” Imavov said after the win. “The referee, that’s his job, that’s what he does on a daily basis. So I think he did the right decision but I was ready to keep going if that was the decision.”
Prior to the questionable stoppage, the middleweights had gone back and forth through the first three rounds. There were some very close moments during the fight.
Cannonier came out head-hunting in the opening round. He also turned to the clinch to slow down Imavov, who showed good speed in the early exchanges.
The middleweights were definitely willing to trade fire on the feet. Imavov caught Cannonier with a slick 1-2 combination, and then the one-time title challenger hammered him right back with a pair of stiff punches of his own.
While Cannonier did a good job inflicting damage on the feet, he kept returning to his clinch. This was possibly to wear Imavov down during a five-round fight.
When he finally broke free, Imavov snapped off some of his best punches. A slick combination had Cannonier backing up.
As the fight continued, Imavov started finding a consistent home for a stinging right hand. This kept tagging Cannonier on the chin.
In return, Cannonier exploded forward with big, heavy shots. This forced Imavov to stay wary from overextending himself in those exchanges.
The right hand truly paid off in that fourth round. Imavov stunned Cannonier with the well-timed counter shot that set up the finish.
Imavov said afterward that he actually identified that tendency in Cannonier’s game. He exploited it during the fight.
“I knew what I was doing,” Imavov said. “I have a lot of experience fighting five-round fights. I knew I wanted to pace myself. The goal was to accelerate during the fight in order to finish him at one point.”
“We worked a lot on that [right hand] with the team. We worked a lot on this hole in the game in order to counter it.”
It certainly appeared like Imavov was going to get Cannonier out of there. It was unfortunate timing that Herzog stopped the fight rather than allowing the France-based fighter to continue his assault to leave no question.
Either way, Imavov got a huge win to add to his resume. He becomes the first middleweight to earn a finish over Cannonier and now he’s gunning for a rematch with a former champion.
“My goal is to get the belt,” Imavov said. “I’d like to fight Sean Strickland in Paris. So Sean Strickland, if you want to do it, come to Paris and we’re going to fight together.”
Their first encounter actually took place at light heavyweight. Strickland earned a unanimous decision win back in January 2023.
Imavov would obviously like to run it back. It remains to be seen if Strickland has any interest in answering that call.