Shavkat Rakhmonov hasn’t put a foot wrong during his ascent up the welterweight ladder towards a title shot.
With a undefeated record and all of his wins coming via finish, the 170-pound contender appears to be set up to challenge Belal Muhammad for the belt next time out. unless something unexpected occurs.
The UFC has been known to temporarily swerve the rankings if it means putting something big together and when you’re talking big in MMA, there’s no one larger than Conor McGregor.
Despite there being no rescheduled date for his welterweight return against Michael Chandler, “The Notorious” returning with a win could completely change the top of the weight class.
Rakhmonov spoke in a recent interview with MMA Fighting about how he believes the promotion will do right by him even in the instance that “The Mac” is back in the mix.
“He’s been getting ready to fight a long time but wasn’t able to do that yet so in my head, I don’t even think about him winning this one fight in three years is going to do something. I understand he’s a big star but in my head, I don’t see it being possible. I believe UFC is the best and the most fair organization so I believe they’re gonna do everything right.”
Shavkat Rakhmonov Reveals That Belal Muhammad Turned Down UFC 307 Title Fight
Though there has been some debate over whether Rakhmonov will definitely be the next title challenger for Muhammad, the contender answered this question all by himself.
He revealed during the same interview that he has already been offered the title shot but it didn’t come to fruition due to the champion not being able to make a 70-day turnaround to fight at elevation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Alex Pereira will be headlining UFC 307 instead, which always seemed to be an optimistic target for Muhammad after he won the belt at the end of July.
“Yeah, actually I had already been offered to fight Belal and I accepted the fight against Belal but unfortunately, he declined to fight me due to the timing issues, he wasn’t ready to defend his belt on that time. So, we’ll see what’s gonna happen and when he’s gonna be ready so I will be able to fight him. Before he became a champion and after he won the belt, he said he’s gonna be an active champion and he will defend his belt more often but at the moment, he isn’t backing up what he said so let’s see what’s going to happen, when he’s going to be ready to fight me.”
Read also: Khalil Rountree Says He Would Fire His Coaches If They Insisted He Grapple Alex Pereira
