A clash of top-10 welterweights between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov has now been rescheduled for UFC 285 has now been rescheduled for UFC 285 on March 4th in Las Vegas.
The fight had originally been set for the UFC’s first event of the year on January 14th in Las Vegas, but Neal was forced to withdraw at the end of December after suffering an undisclosed injury.
At the time there were question marks as to whether Rakhmonov would be kept on the card, but it’s now been confirmed that won’t be the case, with the promotion apparently eager to ensure this match-up remained intact, even if it meant holding it back for a couple of months.
The fight comes at a time when Neal has risen to No.7 in the 170lb rankings after picking up back-to-back wins over Santiago Ponzinibbio and Vicente Luque in the past year, leaving him with an overall record of 7-2 in the UFC so far.
Meanwhile, Rakhmonov has also risen to the No.10 spot after continuing to extend his unbeaten record to 16-0 with four wins in the UFC so far. He’s also managed to finish all four of those fights inside the distance, with submission wins over Alex Oliveira, Michel Prazeres and Neil Magny along with a LKO finish of Carlston Harris.
Neal vs. Rakhmonov helps bolster a UFC 285 card that doesn’t yet have a confirmed headliner, but will also feature Derek Brunson vs. Dricus du Plessis, Cody Garbrandt vs. Julio Arce and Amanda Ribas vs. Viviane Araujo.
