“I expect to win the next one the same way, in the second round,” Imavov said. “I’ll try to keep the fight going to give a real show, to give the audience something to look forward to. It must not end too soon. My opponent has a big mouth, so we’re going to punch him a bit, and in the second round we will finish the job.
“He’s an aggressive opponent who doesn’t back down, who goes forward all the time and who has a strong mind. He has a good mentality and that’s why we wanted him as an opponent. It’s good to fight at home in Paris, it’s good to win, but we want to put on a show. He’s the perfect match for this.
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“It could be both Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night. I think it’s going to be a real war; it’s going to be a big fight. He keeps on moving forward, I keep on moving forward, and that’s it. No one will back down, and we will hit hard and one of us will fall. And I already know who.”
If he can defeat Buckley in as entertaining a fashion as he’s predicting, it’s safe to assume the 26-year-old can break into the UFC middleweight division’s Top 10. But Imavov believes that a win isn’t enough these days to make that jump from a rising star to a credentialed top contender.