Nassourdine Imavov could well break into the UFC Middleweight top 10 following a comfortable majority decision victory over Roman Dolidze at UFC Vegas 85.
After an explosive first round, in which Imavov was within a handful of strikes away from the referee stepping in, the Frenchman continued his solid work over the next two rounds with Dolidze really struggling to implement his game.
The fourth round saw Imavov deducted a point as he launch a left high kick to the head of Dolidze, but as Dolidze had his finger tips touching the mat, he was deemed a downed opponent.
As Herb Dean called for a pause to the action following the kick, the bad blood that had been bubbling between Imavov and Chris Curtis reached boiling point, with Dean having to move Imavov away from the corner to calm down.
The majority victory threw up some interesting score cards, with the cards reading 49-44, 48-46 and 47-47.
Imavov was full of praise for Dolidze and thanked him for remaining the contest following the high kick.
"Roman is a real warrior, he kept fighting even when he could have stopped so I have a lot of respect. Thank you so much Roman, for that - as opposed to his cornerman. He is not a quitter like Chris Curtis."
Discussing the exchange between himself and Chris Curtis, Imavov said:
"I was upset because Chris Curtis kept talking in every fight, he's cornering, he keeps talking to me. This is not his job as a a cornerman, to talk to the fighter. When I went into the cage against him, he was very silent, he got dominated and even quit the fight because of the head butt so know, I just wanted him to stop talking and let me fight."
When asked if he would entertain a rematch with Curtis following their exchange, Imavov made his feelings very clear on the matter. He said:
"I'm not at all interested by Chris Curtis. First of all, he is so low on the rankings. Second of all, I done a masterclass against him, just dominated him. He couldn't do anything in the cage but you know if he really wants to keep talking I can go to his gym and we can do a real tough sparring session and I am going to destroy him as I did in the cage."
