Nassourdine Imavov had a plan for Israel Adesanya that he and his team saw coming, but apparently, very few others did.

Imavov scored the biggest win of his career with an emphatic knockout of the former two-time champion in the second round of the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia. Imavov had accidentally poked Adesanya in the eye at the start of the round, and the 35-year-old decided to forego the up-to-five minute rest period before Imavov landed the big shot that sent Adesanya crumbling to the canvas — leading to the end of the bout.

“That was the goal — to surprise you,” Imavov said at the post-fight press conference. “I told you a surprise was coming. We worked on it during the warmup, we worked on it during the whole week and it worked.

“We knew he would come in in very good shape. That’s what he did from the very beginning, very explosive, very fast. But I had to put my wrestling on, and with the wrestling, [using] the fence with the wrestling, the uppercut would come. My rib was hurt, but I kept wrestling to be able to feint, to be able to strike with the fence.”

Imavov has won four straight contests in just under a 12-month span, including a main event knockout of Jared Cannonier at UFC Louisville in June. “The Sniper” also earned decision victories over Brendan Allen and Roman Dolidze to add to his impressive victory.

While many believe Khamzat Chimaev will get the winner of next weekend’s title fight rematch between Dricus du Plessis and Sean Strickland at UFC 312, Imavov believes his résumé has earned him a first opportunity at UFC gold.

“I cleaned [out] the weight class in one year,” Imavov explained. “Four fights, two wins against top-10 competition, two [finishes] against top-five competition. Next is the belt.”