Jared is 40 and historically being 40 in his sport doesn't work out well. But as it was pointed out to me by the person who developed our PickGPT AI, old dudes be winning since USADA left. Obviously there is still drug testing, but for whatever reason, older fighters have had success at a higher rate in the last 6 months than the last 5 years. Even with that dynamic, age doesn't really matter for Cannonier because he beat Marvin Vettori 10 months ago and literally looked better than ever. His forward pressure and volume were incredible. But as incredible as he looked in that fight, this matchup is very different. Marvin can be a bit hittable whereas Imavov is massive and manages range well. This is a really tough fight to pick because a non-stop forward pressure Cannonier wins this fight but I do think Imavov is the better all around fighter. I will shoot my shot here and lean Connonier in the hopes that his last performance wasn't a one off.
Jared Cannonier
Jared Cannonier is very powerful and incredibly dangerous. He switches from south paw to orthodox and throws kicks from both sides. He has solid grappling defense and a solid chin. He only averages .44 takedowns per 15 minutes but he did just takedown Marvin Vettori 4 times in his most recent win. When he ends up on top he has tons of power and pressure. He looked better than ever in that Vettori fight with not only those 4 takedowns but plenty of forward pressure and striking volume.
Nassourdine Imavov
Nassourdine Imavov is a busy striker who constantly works towards his opponets. He can strike and counter strike while moving forward. He . He has a nice jab, solid elbows and looks very comfortable mixing it up. He has takedowns and solid control when he wants to use them. He averages about 1 takedown per fight but doesn't rely on them often. He is coming off the one sided win over Roman Dolidze where he dropped him and 5x his significant strikes.