If money is the reason Sean Strickland won’t fight Nassourdine Imavov again, Imavov is willing to shell out his money to make the match happen.
The UFC announced its big year-end card last weekend, and it’s a good one. UFC 335 on December 12th will play Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes for the BMF belt, Alex Pereira vs. Sergei Pavlovich in a five-round heavyweight contenders match and middleweight between Joe Pyfer and Bo Nickal.
That evening we studied which could have been: middleweight champion Sean Strickland was in talks with the UFC to fight Nassourdine Imavov. The only glitch? Money. Strickland was not shy Saying that the UFC has to get it right for the fight to happen, something that obviously didn’t happen by the time UFC 335 was announced.
Now, Imavov is looking forward to UFC 336 in January, and he’s putting money in the bank to try and push the fight.
“If it’s really about money, I’ll bet $500,000 of my own money if you beat me in January,” Imavov wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Imavov hasn’t fought since a win over Caio Borralho at UFC Paris in September 2025 that felt like he was locked in as the No. 1 contender at 185 pounds. But instead of matching Imavov with Khamza Chimaev, the UFC instead went with the more popular Strickland. Now a year has passed and Imavov is still waiting.
“Sean Strickland, putting it on tape, if you still don’t take it, you’re just scared,” Imavov continued. “I’ll deal with you outside. UFC, THIS is your champion? Come HIS STRIPED.”
It’s not well remembered, but Strickland and Imavov have fought in the past. They squared off at the top of the UFC Apex card in January 2023, with Tarzan scoring a 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 unanimous decision. Neither the fight nor the ratings were very good for it, so we’re not surprised that the UFC doesn’t want to drop the cash on a rematch.
That being said, Sean Strickland vs. Khamzat Chimaev was one of the promotion’s biggest fights of the year, and that’s because Strickland knows how to move the needle. In this day and age where there aren’t many guys like that in the promotion, should they really try to make the guy short because the legitimate #1 contender isn’t super popular?
Right now, the UFC and Strickland are in a pay dispute, and you never know how bad Sean agrees to be in such a situation. We hope to see Strickland vs. Imavov sometime in early 2026.
