Nassourdine Imavov faces the toughest test of his career on Saturday night but he says a win over Israel Adesanya brings him one more step towards winning a world title.

Frenchman Imavov clashes with former middleweight champion Adesanya in the main event of the UFC’s latest event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this weekend — a fight which comes after a sequence of just one defeat in his past eight outings inside the Octagon.

But as he told the media in the Middle East, fights of this magnitude were always part of the plan.

“I wouldn’t say surreal because after 2024 and the victories I was expecting something like [this],” he told The Mac Life and other reporters on Wednesday via an interpreter. “Even though I was expecting it, when I got the news I was very happy — I posted a picture on my Instagram showing how happy I was and right now I can’t wait for this fight.

“The main thing is that it is going to get me closer to my goal, which is to fight for the belt and so I’m very excited about that.”

Adesanya has proved a tough nut to crack for the vast majority of his opponents in both mixed martial arts and kickboxing and Imavov maintains that his opponent is every bit as dangerous today as he was when he went on the run that led him to gold several years ago.

“If you look at the fight against DDP, he was doing very well,” he said. “In my opinion he was winning the fight before the submission. I think he’s going to come very focused, very hungry. Even though I don’t focus too much on him, I focus more on myself and what I’m going to do. I hope he’s going to be in the best shape so I can beat the best Israel Adesanya.”