Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho will meet in the main event when the UFC returns to Paris at Accor Arena on Saturday, September 6th.
UFC officials announced the pairing early Monday morning.
The middleweights have been circling each other for several months, but Imavov initially accepted the backup role of champions Dorikas du Plessis and Kahamzat Chimaev’s title fight in August. Eventually, Imavov decided that he wanted to stay active rather than staying on the sidelines, so he dropped out of playing backups for the title fight and instead accepted the main event in Paris.
Imavov is currently riding an impressive five-game unbeaten streak, closing out former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya with a devastating knockout on his recent outing in February. If Chimaev has not already secured the No. 1 candidate position, it is possible that Imavov has scored a title shot, but now there is no doubt that when he fights in September, he is standing in the division.
As for Borralho, the fighting nerd standout is currently rolling out the perfect record with a 7-0 resume that includes victory over Jared Cannonier, Paul Craig and Abus Magomedov in the UFC. Over the past few months, Boralho has repeatedly called on Imabov for the fight, but now he has gained hope at the middleweight conference at the main event at the UFC Fight Night in Paris.
With the headliner booked, the UFC plans to add more fights to the cards in the near future as the promotion returned to Paris on September 6th.