Saturday Night UFC 285 was the first time Shavkat Rakhmonov got to widen his name to larger audience. Taking advantage of the opportunity displaying his ELITE striking, conditioning, sambo skills against top ten Geoff Neal. Awarded fight of the night and letting his actions do the talking.
Continuing to gain more followers with that great win with trending highlight finish and hilarious post fight interview with Joe Rogan. Language barrier is tough but UFC and Shavkat doing great job expressing his nomadic warrior archetype.
Post fight press conference called out top five welterweights and I believe it’s time to fight the best welterweights in the world.
“I’d like to get an opponent from the Top 5 to secure my spot as a title contender. I think there is not much left until a title shot.” Shavkat Rakhmonov said on UFC.Com/news
Colby Covington
Fight fans dream matchup out of the three listed would be Shavkat Rakhmonov vs Colby Covington. Two fighters with great conditioning, fighting at fast pace with high volume strikes as you can see from the Geoff Neal.
“I’m ready now. You know Colby Covington, you are next or a title shot next.”
True test for the dark horse of the welterweight division because of Colby’s A+ cardio, Oregon State wrestling and all-around skills can put a blemish on Rakhmonov record.
Colby arguably has some of the best cardio in MMA up there with Kamaru Usman. Interesting matchup for Shavkat as well because Colby broke Robbie Lawler, Rafael Dos Anjos, Smothered Tyron Woodley and definitely can break Shavkat putting hm in deep waters having him suck for air.
Shavkat Rakhmonov definitely can match his cardio wtb Colby because of the crazy Kazakhstan mountain runs. Challenge the Oregon State wrestling with his world class sambo background. Different type of fighting style that he’s never faced before.
Business mind of Colby most likely won’t accept this fight because he wants title shot opportunities and fight the biggest names. No offense to Shavkat but makes no sense fighting low profile fighter outside of the top five. On the other hand, Dana White SHOULD make the Colby fight happen next as it really could catapult his career.
“Colby’s ready to fight,” White said. “He’s ready to fight, and he’s ready to fight anybody. I know we’ve reached out to him for a couple of different fights, and he said yes to it, but it just didn’t work out.”
#1 Heel of the UFC roster vs Kazakhstan’s nomadic hero is a great fight on paper, Nonstop action from the first round to the last second. Very interesting fight for different reasons because of the conditioning, can Shavkat hit Colby with perfect shots, D-1 wrestler vs Sambo Finalist.
Belal Muhammad
Red hot since 2021 defeating Maia, Thompson and Brady with unanimous decision performances. Becoming real fan of Belal Muhammad with the great win against Sean Brady and the Joe Rogan Podcast interview.
Belal Muhammad is one or two more fights away from challenging for the title, blemishing Shavkat undefeated definitely lead to title shot putting added respect to the Palestinian fighters. Belal without a doubt can defeat Shavkat with his gritty wrestling, overpowering him with his strength and hardnose fighting.
In addition to being a great fighter has solid team around him at Chicago Fight Team with Louis Taylor, VFS Academy with Yair Rodriguez, Ignacio Bahomondes and Enrique Gonzalez. Lastly spending time with Team Khabib learning so much about MMA and discipline that will make Belal radically better fighter. Sparring and rolling with the Sambo fighters definitely will make him understand how to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov.
My opinion Shavkat Rakhmonov definitely will have the upper hand in the striking department. Displays beautiful boxing, muay thai, kickboxing skills in every fight. Might have to throw several punch combinations to finish Belal but he can get the job done.
Training with great welterweights at at Kill Cliff FC like Gilbert Burns, Derek Brunson, Jason Jackson, Logan Storley can give Shavkat all the serious looks he need to understand how to face the strong welterweight opponent. Preventing takedowns and controlling the pace in this fight is the key to winning.
Belal Muhammad vs Shavkat Rakhmonov can be a UFC Fight Night Main Event, PPV Main Card Fight. High stakes fight as both fighters are close to title shot. Defeating the red hot Belal Muhammad would earn the top five welterweights respect as for Belal that he’s willing to fight one of the most turned down fighters in the world.
Stephen Thompson
Currently no scheduled bouts for Wonderboy Thompson, UFC continues to give Stephen Thompson long streak of tough matchups sometimes upsetting the UFC with great wins against Kevin Holland, Geoff Neal and Vicente Luque.
Wonderboy’s title challenging days are over as he hitting 40 years old and the UFC doesn’t want to invest money in 40 year old fighter. Dana White, Hunter Campbell and his team hundred percent invest money into the future of Shavkat Rakhmonov as you can tell from the post fight press conference Dana White loves him.
Building the undefeated Kazakhstan prospect off a “strong” win against former UFC Welterweight Title challenger as Shavkat doing his best media post UFC 285 calling out Stephen Thompson.
Shavkat’s striking defense must be excellent avoiding the vicious kicks, taekwondo fighting style for three or five rounds. Head Coach Henri Hooft must show a great gamelan to defeat one of the best welterweights in the world. Using his Combat Sambo fighting style to pressure Thompson against the cage, controlling pace, throwing volume amount of strikes in close range.
Before defeating Holland had back to back losses against grapplers, Thompson I’m sure has no desire to face another wrestler especially a Sambo specialist.
“It doesn’t make sense for me to face another heavy grappler. Let me work on my craft a little more, especially when it comes to wrestling.” Stephen Thompson said on BJPENN.com
Stephen Thompson vs Shavkat Rakhmonov most likely won’t happen but fight fans can only wish. UFC can persuade or pay Wonderboy more. On the other hand Wonderboy been loyal, accepted every fight, headlined UFC events and they can leave him alone giving him “easier” fights for his age.
Billy's MMA Blog 