Shavkat Rakhmonov hasn’t competed since defeating Ian Machado Garry, essentially on one leg, after dealing with knee injuries for nearly two years.
Rakhmonov was slated to fight then-champ Belal Muhammad at UFC 310 in December 2024, but Muhammd withdrew due to injury. Rakhmonov, despite having a miniscus and ACL injury, remained on the card and faced Machado Garry in a No. 1 contender fight, winning a competitive decision.
In a rare interview, Rakhmonov discusses his injuries, and decision making, while also taking a shot at Khabib Nurmagomedov and current welterweight champ Islam Makhachev.
“Well that’s my problem, I couldn’t fight,” Rakhmonov told Alf Global. “If I had fought, I could’ve become champion, but that’s how it turned out. I was injured. What can I do? We are only human. We are bound to make plenty of mistakes. …
“I actually shouldn’t even have fought Ian Garry at all. With injuries like that, I shouldn’t have fought at all, I just took a risk. That’s the Kazakh way. Kazakhs are very daring. They’re not afraid. If it had been some other Dagestani fighter like Khabib or Islam Makhachev, they definitely would’ve refused.”
Rakhmonov put over Machado Garry as a great and well-rounded fighter, but obviously believes had he been healthy, it would’ve been a victory by a wider margin.
“I already had an injury going into the Ian Garry fight,” Rakhmonov explained. “I stepped in, I hadn’t fought for a year, I wanted to fight. Even before that, I had health problems, too, and it turned out there were only two weeks left before the Ian Garry fight.
“That old injury was still bothering me a lot. My leg was swollen. And when he was striking me, it was probably because I completely lacked a ligament. I couldn’t really feel that strike, in general.”
Rakhmonov was on the road to a return to the octagon before re-injuring his knee again that has kept him out of action another full year. “Nomad” is 19-0, including a 7-0 run in the UFC — stopping the likes of Stephen Thompson, Geoff Neal and Neil Magny.
Makhachev had recently said prior to his UFC 330 title defense against Machado Garry that he doesn’t believe Rakhmonov will fight again after the injuries he has sustained. He hopes to return to action in 2027, but Rakhmonov would be lying if he said it’s 100 percent he’ll return to the UFC.
““Time will tell,” Rakhmonov said. “It’s too early to say anything yet. I’ll do my best to come back and win the title. Time will reveal everything.”
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