Taffy's Takes: Part 1 "Strickland is [still] a nightmare matchup for Nassourdine Imavov" Imavov is a nearly identical fighter in terms of technical skill, to the one we saw go against Sean Strickland a few years ago. He prefers to feint and hand-fight, while he remains largely stationary and upright, often throwing elliptical kicks and will explode into hard combinations [generally a 3-4]. He doesn't do as well when he's put on the backfoot and not allowed to establish his rhythm. Sean's constant forward pressure disrupts him and forces him to lose ground. He has less room to set up or attempt to draw out openings. Strickland's defense shut down Imavov's offense as he doesn't grant his opponents those sort of opportunities; therefore Imavov spends much of his time attempting to draw out reactions or openings from likely the greatest defensive striker in the history of the 185 division, as he's simultaneously being put on the backfoot and being kept at range where Sean is very comfortable. Imavov also struggled as Strickland utilized both clinch and wrestling exchanges to further disrupt his rhythm and offensive set up. He was entirely shut out of their first bout, and I don't believe that Imavov has since developed the sort of adaptability and unpredictable explosivity that allowed Du Plessis to beat Sean.