UFC Saudi Arabia 2025 Main Event Pick
After a solid two-event serving in January, the UFC circus hits the road with 12-consecutive weekends of events headed your way. The first of which sees the UFC touch down in Saudi Arabia once again, bringing with them a pair of middleweight headliners that are sure to produce fireworks. The co-main-event features an electric striking clash between undefeated and fan favorite, Shara Magomedov, as he takes on the ever-elusive, Michael Venom Page. However, the main event is where the real stakes are on the line. Read more UFC Saudi Arabia 2025 main event pick.
Former champion, Israel Adesanya, looks to buck his two-fight losing skid and have his first non-title fight in six years.
Rising contender, Nassourdine Imavov, hopes to make it four wins in a row and notch the biggest name to his win column.
How do these strikers match up? Read on to see who I believe will come out on top and how we can make the most of this fight for our pockets.
Hey, while you’re at it, click here to check out our Godzilla Wins Daily Staff Picks!
Israel Adesanya
Exploding into the UFC with nine-straight victories, Adesanya made his mark quickly with the promotion. He debuted for the promotion in February 2018 and within a year was scheduled to challenge for the championship, unfortunately an injury to the champion put Adesanya up against one of his MMA idols, Anderson Silva.
He would go on to capture the interim championship in his next fight, then go on to unify the title later that year. Successfully defending the title 6 times before losing it Alex Pereira, Adesanya would exact his revenge and win the title back from Pereira just five months later. Then started the two-fight losing streak he is now on with back-to-back title fight losses to Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis.
What made Adesanya so lethal was his technical striking approach. Mastering distance and range management was a key part in his success, but also his ability to feint and pull out reactions from opponents.
Power may not be what you think when Adesanya comes to mind, but more finesse than anything. 5 of his 13 wins have come by knockout, but those knockouts come from consistent trapping and gameplanning. For example, beating up the lead leg of Paulo Costa to slow him down and open up the rest of his striking. Grappling, from a defensive standpoint, is something that’s largely held up for Adesanya throughout his career, keeping him in a place he feels most comfortable.
Nassourdine Imavov
When Imavov made his UFC debut back in October 2020, many believed he was going to be a bust. An abysmal win over Jordan Williams added fuel to that fire, then we saw him get outwrestled and grinded out by Phil Hawes. That’s when things started getting interesting for him, notching one of the more impressive performances we’ve seen against Ian Heinisch in mid-2021 made way for a three-fight winning streak.
That led the Frenchman into a main event slot to open the 2023 calendar, losing to eventual champion, Sean Strickland. Imavov has grown since that loss, putting together a three-fight winning streak that could easily be four had his fight with Chris Curtis not been stopped to an accidental head butt. It seemed momentum was in his favor that night, but credit to him for keeping that momentum going into his following three fights.
Imavov, like his nickname states (The Sniper), loves to operate at distance and pick opponents apart with his kickboxing. Over his 7 UFC wins, 3 of them have come by finish.
We don’t often see him getting too overzealous with looking for finishes, but rather just letting his work speak for itself. If a finish shows itself, he’ll take it, but he’s content with battering opponents and taking home decision victories. Grappling is normally the flaw most try to take advantage of, but he has done a solid job of rounding out that aspect of his game, especially from what we saw in his last fight against dangerous submission specialist, Brendan Allen.
The Pick
This is such a fantastic fight for both guys. For Adesanya, who has voiced that he enjoys the freedom of not chasing the title anymore, this is a great challenge for him to showcase to himself that he still has it. For Imavov, it allows him to face a former title holder and prove to everyone that he’s ready for a title shot. Unfortunately for Imavov, I think his style of kickboxing floats right into what Adesanya will do well against. Look for Adesanya to pick Imavov apart, slow him down, and run away with this in deep water. The current odds on Adesanya are a steal but also shows that the public is starting to believe he is washed. I wholeheartedly disagree and will gladly take this number on him to give us a classic Adesanya performance.
