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History · 2023 · UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs. Imavov · Sean Strickland vs Nassourdine Imavov
From the tape · 14 Jan 2023

Sean Strickland vs Nassourdine Imavov

UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs. Imavov · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Result

Sean Strickland beat Nassourdine Imavov

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Light HeavyweightMainReferee · Mark Smith

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner SeanStricklandXtreme Couture · Anaheim, California
VSOn the tape
Blue corner NassourdineImavov“The Sniper”Venum Training Camp · Paris
Light Heavyweight5 rounds14 Jan 2023
The story going in
  • Has dropped 2 straight in the UFC.
  • Comes in on a 3-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 4 of 12 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 2 of 4 UFC wins.
31-7
Record
17-4
31
Age
−5 yr26
6' 1"
Height
+2″6' 3"
+1″76″
Reach
75″
Orthodox
Stance
Orthodox
+1217
UFC bouts
5
4/1233% of wins
Finishes
+17%2/450% of wins
Xtreme Couture
Gym
Venum Training Camp
Anaheim, California
From
Paris
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Sean Strickland24 sig landed
HEAD67%16 of 64BODY21%5 of 7LEGS12%3 of 3
Nassourdine Imavov19 sig landed
HEAD42%8 of 36BODY42%8 of 10LEGS16%3 of 4
24 of 74
Sig.
strikes
19 of 50
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:14
Control
0:00
Distance 24Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 19Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Strickland firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Sean Strickland22 sig landed
HEAD59%13 of 60BODY36%8 of 11LEGS5%1 of 1
Nassourdine Imavov22 sig landed
HEAD64%14 of 50BODY18%4 of 4LEGS18%4 of 4
22 of 72
Sig.
strikes
22 of 58
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
1:49
Control
0:00
Distance 21Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 19Clinch 3Ground 0
Judges · this round · Strickland firstMichael Bell9–10Derek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Sean Strickland47 sig landed
HEAD66%31 of 61BODY26%12 of 13LEGS9%4 of 4
Nassourdine Imavov24 sig landed
HEAD50%12 of 33BODY38%9 of 9LEGS12%3 of 3
47 of 78
Sig.
strikes
24 of 45
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 1
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 47Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 23Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Strickland firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Sean Strickland57 sig landed
HEAD82%47 of 87BODY14%8 of 11LEGS4%2 of 2
Nassourdine Imavov23 sig landed
HEAD43%10 of 36BODY35%8 of 10LEGS22%5 of 5
57 of 100
Sig.
strikes
23 of 51
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:50
Control
0:08
Distance 56Clinch 1Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 21Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Strickland firstMichael Bell10–9Derek Cleary10–9Sal D'Amato10–9
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Sean Strickland32 sig landed
HEAD84%27 of 75BODY16%5 of 6LEGS0%0 landed
Nassourdine Imavov35 sig landed
HEAD66%23 of 52BODY34%12 of 13LEGS0%0 landed
32 of 81
Sig.
strikes
35 of 65
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
1:19
Control
0:04
Distance 27Clinch 5Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 22Clinch 13Ground 0
Judges · this round · Strickland firstMichael Bell9–10Derek Cleary9–10Sal D'Amato9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Mark Smith
Sean StricklandNassourdine Imavov
Official totals — Sean Strickland first
JudgeTotal
Michael Bell48–47
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide49–46
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide49–46

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 20 scored, Sean Strickland first · unofficial

Alex Behunin Cageside Press49–46
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com49–46
MM AMania.com49–46
MM AJunkie.com49–46
Jake Noecker BetQL49–46
Combat Press.com49–46
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com49–46
Chris De Santiago MiddleEasy.com49–46
Jillian DeCoursey49–46
Matthew Wells MMAJunkie.com49–46
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com48–47
Nick Baldwin theScore48–47
Scott Fontana New York Post48–47
Sheehan SevereMMA.com48–47
Bloody Elbow.com48–47
Mike Heck MMAFighting.com48–47
Jay Pettry Sherdog.com48–47
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com48–47
Mike Fridley Sherdog.com48–47
Luca Fury Fury's Fight Picks48–47

Fan vote · unofficial

49-46 Strickland · 51%48-47 Strickland · 32%50-45 Strickland · 9%48-47 Imavov · 5%48-46 Strickland · 1%

235 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Sean Strickland

0.66takedowns / 15 min
0.66 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.74 / 15m
1.06 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
2.31 / 15m
62%
ACCURACY
32%
0.10 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.00 / 15m

Nassourdine Imavov

0.74takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (6.86 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Middleweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Sean Strickland↑ +5.5pp
open 39.3%close 44.9%
Nassourdine Imavov↓ −5.5pp
open 60.7%close 55.1%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Sean Strickland opened at 39.3% and closed at 44.9% (+5.5pp), with Nassourdine Imavov moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Sean Strickland14511439.3%44.9%+5.5pp
Nassourdine Imavov-170-13560.7%55.1%−5.5pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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