Nassourdine Imavov made his whole case against Sean Strickland in about two dozen words of English, and Daniel Cormier thinks that’s exactly how this business is supposed to look.
Sportskeeda ran Cormier’s reaction to the run-in at the UFC Performance Institute under a five-word line from the Hall of Famer: “It’s the way the game works.” That’s the part of his take on the record here, and it’s enough to argue with or agree with. I agree with it, and the clip itself is the best evidence.
The order matters
Start with what Strickland said before the two men crossed paths. On Wednesday, Championship Rounds posted a clip of Strickland saying he was considering vacating his belt and moving to 205 to fight out his deal. “Unless things change with the UFC thing I’m kinda over it,” he said. “Contemplating just going to 205, knocking out my contract and scrapping with Jake Paul.”
View post on X
A little over an hour later, the same account posted footage of Imavov running into him in Las Vegas. The transcribed exchange is short:
Imavov: “What is your problem? You not sign the contract?” Strickland: “Say what?” Imavov: “Money? I have money, I give. Hey I’m here, where are you going?”
Read that again with the timeline in mind. Imavov didn’t come at Strickland over a slight or a tweet about his family. He came at him about paperwork. His first question is about a contract going unsigned, and his follow-up goes straight at the money, which is the exact grievance Strickland had been airing. “I have money, I give” lands somewhere between sarcasm and an offer, and either reading works as a needle. Then the closer, which is the best line anyone has delivered in this whole saga: I’m here, where are you going?
That’s a fighter who wants a belt asking the man holding it, in person, at the place where both of them train. Cormier spent a career around rooms like that. He knows a contender walking up to a champion and demanding an answer is the oldest move in the sport, and that the version in this clip, all words and no shoving in what Championship Rounds transcribed, is about as civil as it gets.
View post on X
Strickland’s week went somewhere else
The confrontation reads differently once you see what Strickland did with the next 24 hours.
Shortly after midnight GMT on Thursday, Jake Paul posted a list of names he wants to fight before he rests, a roster that ran from Canelo Alvarez and Francis Ngannou to Conor McGregor, with Strickland fourth. Paul also wrote to Strickland directly, saying he’d seen his texts, asking whether he was out of contract and telling him to have his promoter call MVP.
Strickland quoted that post and answered: “I haven’t decided if I want to nuke my contract but I gotta say man putting hands on you sounds way better than the UFC right now.....”
By Thursday evening he’d gone further. In a video shared by Championship Rounds, he said he was done with the UFC and wanted to box. “I’m gonna say the quiet part out loud that nobody says... the [UFC] just doesn’t care anymore,” he said. He added that the promotion doesn’t pay fighters enough to make walking away a hard choice, and he framed the boxing move as something still being negotiated: “We’re trying to work that out, but if the UFC says ‘we’re not gonna do that’, well I’m gonna stick and move.”
View post on X
Why Imavov had the better argument that day
Strickland’s complaint about pay and legacy is a real one, and fighters have been making some version of it for as long as there’s been a UFC. He’s entitled to push for a bigger check or a different kind of fight. But the timing put him in an awkward spot at the PI. He’d spent the day talking about knocking out his contract against a YouTuber-turned-boxer, and the man standing in front of him was offering a fight under the contract he already has.
That’s why Cormier’s read holds up. Imavov did what contenders do when the champion starts looking at the exits: he showed up, made it personal enough to sting, and kept it about the fight. Nobody got hurt, nobody got arrested, and the clip did more to make Imavov a name in this story than any callout on a microphone would have. If the UFC wants leverage in whatever conversation Strickland’s camp is having, a contender asking “where are you going?” on camera is about as useful as leverage gets.
Strickland gave his answer Thursday night, at least for now. He wants to box, he says the details are being worked out, and if the UFC won’t go along with it, he’s going to stick and move. Imavov is still standing where he was at the PI, waiting for a signature.
