Nassourdine Imavov placed on an excellent efficiency within the UFC Paris important occasion, however it wasn’t with out its blemishes.
At two factors within the struggle, Imavov harm opponent Caio Borralho with eye pokes, resulting in stern warnings from referee Marc Goddard—however no precise penalty on the scorecards for Imavov. The French middleweight contender went on to win a convincing unanimous resolution and whereas some extent deduction won’t have affected the ultimate outcome (Imavov received through scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46), the fouls nonetheless might have performed a consider how the motion performed out.
Former UFC champion Robert Whittaker gave his ideas on the matter on his MMArcade Podcast, suggesting extra must be completed to stop eye pokes.
“Eye pokes have to be addressed,” Whittaker mentioned. “He acquired three warnings, didn’t he? The factor was, I keep in mind the ref coming in, giving him the ‘exhausting warning’ after which Nassourdine goes straight out like this, like his fingers are open straightaway. Fingers nonetheless pointing up. Immediately, although, man made zero adjustments from that arduous warning. I don’t know.
“Eye pokes are so exhausting, although, as a result of once you get eye poked, it doesn’t matter whether or not it was exhausting or not, your imaginative and prescient blurs or doubles. It places you off a lot, a lot, it’s so exhausting to cope with. I believe the implications have to be a little bit bit extra dire, particularly if it’s from that place, that state of affairs the place the man has his hand outstretched, he’s utilizing it to gauge distance. It’s similar to making an attempt to maneuver into, like, sticks, what I imply?”
Whittaker famous he’s not singling out Imavov, who has now received 5 straight fights and is a number one candidate to problem middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev within the close to future.
Although he’s undecided what the answer is, Whittaker thinks being allowed to struggle with fingers prolonged provides a striker a transparent benefit when controlling distance.
“A watch poke can change a struggle, simply,” Whittaker mentioned. “But it surely’s not simply him, there’s lots of people. It must be addressed, undoubtedly, as a result of he was range-finding completely with these.
“I’ll say, regardless, congratulations to him. That was a stellar struggle. I believed it was a very good struggle, good scrap.”
The favored assumption now could be that Imavov has to attend for an upcoming bout between fellow contenders Reinier de Ridder and Anthony Hernandez to play out earlier than the matchmakers resolve who will get the spot for Chimaev’s first title protection. De Ridder and “Fluffy” are set to headline UFC Vancouver on Oct. 18.
As dominant as Imavov was on Saturday, he didn’t make an hermetic case in Whittaker’s eyes.
“I don’t assume that struggle cemented that struggle for him,” Whittaker mentioned. “I believe it undoubtedly put him within the working, however that’s what it’s. It’s a working now. I believe ‘RDR’ and Fluffy are going to punch on and in the event that they do one thing distinctive, they may bounce the queue, I believe.
“That’s nothing to remove from Imavov. That was an important struggle. Caio didn’t give him any room. … That was a really high-level struggle. Very high-level, high-stakes hanging struggle, it was actually good to observe.”
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