Israel Adesanya vs. Nassourdine Imavov: Odds, full fight preview and prediction | UFC Saudi Arabia

Final Combating Championship (UFC) Middleweight standouts Israel Adesanya vs. Nassourdine Imavov will conflict TONIGHT (Sat., Feb. 1, 2025) at UFC Saudi Arabia from anb Enviornment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Stylebender” has been atop the Middleweight heap for an extended whereas. He rose to the title rapidly and defended it actively, producing an unbelievable few years of championship accolades. Sadly, the tempo seemingly caught as much as the 35-year-old kickboxer, who misplaced his title in an uninspired loss to Sean Strickland. He introduced a bit extra hearth to his final bout versus present kingpin Dricus Du Plessis, however the finish consequence was nonetheless consecutive losses.

The street doesn’t develop a lot simpler for the previous champion. 29-year-old Imavov has the abilities and expertise of a future champion, and he’s solely nonetheless getting into his prime. He’s a troublesome combat for anybody within the division, the furthest factor from a softball rebound opponent.

Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at the betting odds and strategic keys for every athlete:

Adesanya vs. Imavov Betting Odds

Israel Adesanya victory: -162
Israel Adesanya by way of TKO/KO/DQ: +330
Israel Adesanya by way of submission: +2500
Israel Adesanya by way of choice: +130
Nassourdine Imavov victory: +136
Nassourdine Imavov by way of TKO/KO/DQ: +600
Nassourdine Imavov by way of submission: +900
Nassourdine Imavov by way of choice: +300
Odds by way of DraftKings Sportsbook

How Adesanya Wins

Adesanya is an professional vary striker. His capacity to manage distance, break his foe down with kicks, and stroll them into counters made him a champion. Over time, nevertheless, we’ve watched as Adesanya has used fewer of his earlier instruments and grown a bit extra restricted on the toes.

Fortuitously, Imavov isn’t a wildly diverse striker both. He’s a sniper like Adesanya, a exact distance striker with a beautiful jab. The precedence for Adesanya then must be taking away that jab. There are one million methods to counter the jab, however previously Adesanya has efficiently used proper low kicks, Southpaw hand-fighting, and physique photographs underneath the punch.

The opposite component of assault that will come into play from Imavov is the wrestling. Usually, Adesanya’s takedown protection has held up fairly properly over his profession, however he does have a behavior of turning his again to face. Imavov is unquestionably a strong backpack, so Adesanya must be cautious within the grappling exchanges about controlling a hand if he does flip away to construct a base.

How Imavov Wins

Imavov has a few of the finest boxing at 185-pounds. His jab is punishing, and he fires crisp mixtures down the center as soon as he’s actually discovered his vary. Early in his UFC profession, wrestling felt like a legal responsibility, however now Imavov has taken down and outworked some actually strong competitors at simply 29 years of age.

Ability-wise, I’m unsure Imavov has any main benefits right here aside from offensive wrestling, which outright doesn’t like sufficient to beat Adesanya’s takedown protection. Actually, his huge benefit is being six years youthful with much less wear-and-tear on his thoughts and physique.

Final outing, Adesanya light towards Dricus Du Plessis’ mad barrage. He had huge moments, however when he was fatigued and acquired clipped late, he shut down like older fighters are wont to do. Imavov’s finest probability at victory is pushing the tempo exhausting and aiming for a grueling combat. Because the youthful man, he’s going to recuperate extra between rounds and put on the harm higher, which means any benefits and openings he discover will develop over time.

Adesanya vs. Imavov Prediction

I’m not prepared to put in writing off “Stylebender” simply but.

Usually, I assumed Adesanya carried out fairly properly towards “DDP” even when it was clear his bodily peak is previously. Ability-wise, he nonetheless confirmed some nice mixture work and heavy kicks. Imavov’s go-to model — working behind the jab, constructing his offense slowly — performs into Adesanya’s most well-liked strategy as properly, however Adesanya is best at it. The query is whether or not Imavov can flip the script along with his wrestling or pure tempo, however neither of these choices really feel like a recipe for achievement over 25 minutes.

Put merely, Du Plessis is the most effective berserker within the division, and he nonetheless went by means of hell to put on down Adesanya. I’m not assured Imavov has the grit or the talent set to copy his success.

Prediction: Adesanya by way of choice (+130)