Nassourdine Imavov KOs Israel Adesanya at Struggle Evening 250

Nassourdine Imavov celebrates after defeating Israel Adesanya of their males’s middleweight combat throughout the Final Preventing Championship (UFC) Struggle Evening 250 in Riyadh on February 1, 2025. (Photograph by Fayez NURELDINE / AFP)

Nassourdine Imavov knocked out former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya 30 seconds into Spherical 2, pushing his win streak to 4 on Saturday afternoon in the principle occasion of UFC Struggle Evening 250 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Imavov (16-4, 1 NC MMA) handed Adesanya (24-5) his third straight loss and fourth in his final six appearances and referred to as for a middleweight title shot towards the winner of the rematch between Dricus Du Plessis (22-2) vs. Sean Strickland (29-6) in subsequent Saturday’s UFC 312 headliner.

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“I believe there’s little question I’m value (preventing) for the belt,” Imavov stated through a translator instantly after the combat. “I imply, 4 victories in a single yr. Two high 5, two top-10 (wins) Two finishes. The document speaks for itself.”

READ: Du Plessis stops Adesanya, retains UFC middleweight title

The co-headliner noticed Michael Web page hand Sharabutdin Magomedov his first MMA defeat, successful a unanimous choice 30-27, 30-27, 29-28.

Web page (23-3) improved to 2-1 within the UFC, voicing to the welterweight division in his post-fight interview that he may very well be a formidable title challenger later this yr.

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Magomedov (15-1) shortly rose up the UFC scene and was contemporary off a 3-0 mark final yr, having received two of three fights by knockout.

Heavyweights took heart stage subsequent, as Sergei Pavlovich beat former coaching associate Jairzinho Rozenstruik by unanimous choice 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.

Pavlovich (19-3) snapped a two-fight skid and improved to 7-3 within the UFC. Rozenstruik (15-6) has break up his final 4 fights and fell to 9-6 within the promotion.

Regardless of ultimately revealing a pre-fight rib damage, the second principal card combat noticed bantamweight Vinicius Oliveira persevere to defeat rising contender Stated Nurmagomedov by unanimous choice – 29-28, 29-28, 29-28.

READ: Israel Adesanya surprised by Sean Strickland at UFC 293

It was the fifth straight win for Oliveira (22-3), who expressed curiosity in preventing former title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov (18-1) throughout his in-Octagon post-fight interview. Stated Nurmagomedov (18-4 MMA) fell to 7-3 within the UFC, dropping two of his final three outings.

In a bloody affair to open the principle card, light-weight Fares Ziam survived a close to calf-slicer second-round loss to ultimately overwhelm Mike Davis and win his fifth consecutive combat – 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.

With the choice, Ziam (17-4) received his fifth straight UFC bout. He has not tasted defeat since February 2022 towards fellow preliminary card victor Terrance McKinney (16-7).

UFC Saudi Arabia marks the primary marathon-style stretch of occasions, lasting 9 weeks. It continues per week from Saturday with UFC 312, headlined by a pair of title fights to cap a 12-fight pay-per-view card from Sydney, Australia.