Nassourdine Imamov’s two wins in a row over ranked middleweight competition in 2021 have apparently earned him the biggest fight of his young career. According to MMA Fighting, the 25-year-old Dagestani will take on former 185-pound title challenger Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 273 on April 9th.
Imamov (11-3, 3-1 UFC) is coming off a TKO win over Edmen Shahbazyan at UFC 268 in November. His only loss in the Octagon to date came at the hands of Phil Hawes last February.
Gastelum (16-8, 1 NC), 11-8, 1 NC UFC) hasn’t had much luck lately, coming up short in five out of his last six fights overall. To be fair, it was against top-level competition. He dropped five-round decisions to Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier in his last two.
The TUF 17 winner is currently ranked at number ten in the middleweight division, while Imamov sits at 12.
UFC 273 will be headlined by two title fights, with Alexander Volkanovski defending his featherweight title against The Korean Zombie, while Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling will finally tangle for the bantamweight title once again.