NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA chief Marty Walsh covered all the bases before the Cup Final, including the 4 Nations Face-Off, the rising salary cap and the latest outdoor game thoughts.
An entertaining night of action at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky ended in controversial fashion.
In the early moments of the fourth round of Saturday’s middleweight main event, Nassourdine Imavov hit Jared Cannonier with a shot that put the Top 5 fixture on shaky footing, prompting the Paris-based hopeful to press forward in search of a finish. As he continued landing a smattering of shots that prompted Cannonier to retreat and look for safe space, referee Jason Herzog stepped in and halted the action.
Cannonier immediately protested, the crowd instantly broke out into a Bronx cheer, and the biggest win of Imavov’s career was quickly saddled with an asterisk.
Herzog is one of the absolute best officials in the sport, but most believe that he got one wrong on Saturday night. While Imavov was swarming, Cannonier was still on his feet and covering up, looking to defend himself.
But the way the fight ended doesn’t take away from the totality of Imavov’s performance on Saturday night, as the 29-year-old took the best Cannonier had to offer, found his range and rhythm, and then started to take the fight to the former middleweight title challenger as the bout progressed.
Though he wasn’t a heralded prospect when he arrived in the UFC in the fall of 2020, Imavov has matriculated his way up the middleweight ranks, amassing a 6-2 record with one no contest verdict over his first nine appearances, and forced his way into the title conversation with his strong outing — despite the suspect stoppage — on Saturday evening.
Asked for his thoughts on where he stands in the division following the contest, Imavov lobbied for an opportunity to face former champ Sean Strickland, who earned a unanimous decision win over Paulo Costa last weekend at UFC 302, when the promotion returns to Paris in late September. Strickland has said he wants to wait for a championship opportunity, but the matchup certainly makes sense in terms of where each man stands in the middleweight hierarchy at the moment.
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