UFC Fight Night card: Full main card, undercard matchups for Imavov-Strickland bout

The UFC will get 2023 started with a Fight Night card at the APEX on Saturday, January 14 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The feature match is between top-15 light heavyweights Sean Strickland (25-5) and Nassourdine Imavov (12-3). The bout headlines a five-fight main card that will begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN+. The preliminary card, which will have seven fights starts at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

The main event features two fighters looking to start 2023 off the right way. Strickland has lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his career, albeit against top five opposition. Imavov appears ready to move into the top ten with a win, which would be his fourth straight. “The Russian Sniper” is a tall, long fighter with accurate striking skills (nearly 55% connect rate).

Strickland is a late injury substitution for Kelvin Gastelum, who backed out of the fight earlier in the week. He fought last month, a split-decision loss to Jared Cannonier. Imavov took a fight in his adopted home country of France in September, beating Joaquin Buckley in a unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 209.

Imavov is currently a -125 betting favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook. Strickland is sitting at +105 on the moneyline.

UFC Fight Night: Nassourdine Imavov vs. Sean Strickland main card, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN+

• Main event: #12 Nassourdine Imavov vs. #7 Sean Strickland, light heavyweight
• #13 Dan Ige vs. Damon Jackson, featherweight
• Punahele Soriano vs. Roman Kopylov, middleweight
• #2 Ketlen Vieira vs. #5 Raquel Pennington, women's bantamweight
• #11 Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Raoni Barcelos, bantamweight

Preliminary card, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN+

• Claudio Ribeiro vs. Abdul Razak Al-Hassan, middleweight
• Mateusz Rebecki vs. Nick Fiore, lightweight
• Javid Basharat vs. Mateus Mendonca, bantamweight
• Allan Nascimento vs. Carlos Hernandez, flyweight
• Nick Aguirre vs. Daniel Argueta, featherweight
• Charles Johnson vs. Jimmy Flick, flyweight
• Priscila Cachoeira vs. Sijara Eubanks, women's flyweight CANCELED

  
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