On the heels of a second-round submission victory against Neil Magny at
UFC on ESPN 38, Shavkat
Rakhmonov has emerged as a factor in the welterweight division,
taking over the No. 10 spot in the promotion’s latest rankings.
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Gilbert
Burns, his teammate at Sanford MMA, revealed that he invited
Rakhmonov to be his No. 1 sparring partner ahead of his bout with
Khamzat
Chimaev at UFC 273 in April. However, Rakhmonov had more
pressing matters to attend to at the time.
“[UFC on ESPN 38 was] the third camp he did here at Sanford,” Burns
told Sherdog.com. “I was going to hire him to help me against
Chimaev, but his son was just born, so he had to return to
Kazakhstan. But he is definitely really tough. Tall, strong, has
great wrestling, good jiu-jitsu and great striking skills, besides
being a really nice guy. Everybody liked him here at Sanford.”
Planning his UFC return against Jorge
Masvidal, “Durinho” hopes to have the contract signed as soon
as possible.
“My fight with Masvidal is verbally agreed but we are waiting for a
date,” Burns said. “Thursday I´m going to UFC fight week in Vegas.
I hope to meet with Dana [White] and [Sean] Shelby to [get it
finalized].”