Shavkat
Rakhmonov has had a tough time getting fights against Top 10
fighters in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, and he plans to make the most
of his showcase this Saturday.
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Rakhmonov (17-0) is slated to meet two-time welterweight title
challenger Stephen
Thompson at UFC 296 on Dec. 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas. The event will be headlined by the division’s current
titleholder, Leon
Edwards, defending his welterweight strap against Colby
Covington. While Rakhmonov sits at No. 5 in the UFC’s official
rankings, a win over Thompson could catapult him into title
contention considering the Kazakh has finished all 17 of his
professional MMA fights.
Rakhmonov believes he is ready to fight for the title and is
expecting to do so soon, though he is yet to have a conversation
with the UFC in that regard.“Nomad” said on The MMA Hour:
“No, I didn’t have this conversation or any promises, but all I
want to say is that I’m already ready to fight for the title and
the win over Stephen Thompson will be another reason to prove that
I’m ready. I don’t know what’s going to happen after, I just want
to focus on Stephen Thompson and we’ll find out what’s going to
happen after… Only God knows, but I wish to fight for the title
next year. My goal is to win this belt and to bring this belt back
to Kazakhstan.”
Currently undefeated in five UFC outings, finding higher ranked
opponents has always been a task for Rakhmonov. Even the
sixth-ranked Thompson turned him down on multiple occasions before
finally accepting, in the wake of declining to face an overweight
Michel
Pereira earlier this year. Rakhmonov expressed his gratitude
that such a veteran, high-level contender agreed to fight him:
“At first, I was scheduled to fight Kelvin
Gastelum and he pulled out because of injury and it was
understandable, but then I started to hear that Stephen
Thompson is willing to fight me and I was just glad that he
wanted to fight me because it’s hard to get me a fight. Even though
he’s on the other side, he’s 40 years old, I still believe he’s a
high-level athlete and it’s not easy to get him out from the top
five or top 10. So I was just glad that someone accepted the fight
with me.”