French fighter Nassourdine Imavov will face Brendan Allen in Paris, France at the Accor Arena at part of the upcoming UFC Paris. The scheduled middleweight bout is slated to be the co-main event for UFC Paris on September 28, 2024.
News of the bout was first reported by Fight Minds. And comes after Allen seemingly agreed to the fight with Imavov weeks ago, only to appear to change his mind earlier this month.
Allen took to his Instagram story July 8 (captured here via MMA Orbit) to express his disapproval of not fighting in a main event, stating, “Two weeks ago, they said Imavov in Paris, I said yes. I said I want to be the main event because I’ve main event’d three in a row, won all three, I’m going into enemy territory.”
Allen continued, saying “Next thing you know we see BSD-Moicano are main event. I ain’t f*cking going all the way to Paris for these two dudes to go over me,” expressing his shock and irritation with the main event announcement.
“So again, Imavov, if you want to fight, you want to get this done, if it’s just me that you want to fight, come on over to America, we’ll get it done.” Allen said.
It appears Allen had a change of heart and will settle for a co-main event slot at UFC Paris. Neither fight has been officially announced as a main or co-main event by the promotion.
Brendan Allen (24-5) is on a seven-fight win streak since losing to Chris Curtis in 2021. Allen submitted five of those seven opponents by rear naked choke. And three of his last four fights have been main events. (Andre Muniz, Paul Craig, and most recently, a rematch with Chris Curtis back in April).
Nassourdine Imavov (14-4) is also on a pretty hot streak having won five of his last seven fights. Imavov’s last two fights have been main events as he won a majority decision over Roman Dolidze in April. Imavov was last in the cage in June when he got a controversial stoppage against Jared Cannonier in the fourth round of their bout. This will be just the third UFC Fight Night event to take place in Paris, France. Imavov who trains out of MMA Factory in Paris, will compete for a second time for the promotion in the ‘City of Love.’ He previously fought Jaoquin Buckley there in 2022.
With the addition of Imavov vs. Allen, UFC Paris now has eight scheduled bouts with the lineup looking as follows:
- Renato Moicano vs. Benoit Sanit-Denis
- Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen
- William Gomis vs. Joanderson Brito
- Germaine de Randamie vs. Nora Cornolle
- Allin Perez vs. Darya Zheleznyakova
- Fares Ziam vs. Matt Frevola
- Daniel Barez vs. VIctor Altamirano
- Oumar Sy vs. Da Woon Jung
