Shavkat Rakhmonov appears to be in pole position to get the first shot at newly crowned welterweight champion Belal Muhammad’s title as he claims the UFC brass have already tried to put the fight together for UFC 307.
However, Muhammad appears to have thrown a spanner in the works by saying he won’t be available for the show in Salt Lake City on October 26th.
“Yeah, actually, I’ve already been offered a fight to fight Belal and I accepted the fight against Belal,” Rakhmonov told MMA Fighting. “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 going to happen and when he’s going to 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 going to be an active champion and he will defend his belt more often, but at the moment he wasn’t backing up what he said, you know, so let’s see what’s going to happen, when he’s going to be ready to fight me.”
Rhakmonov is currently ranked No.3 in the division after compiling a perfect 18-0 career record, including six stoppage wins in the UFC so far.
In his last three fights alone the 29-year-old has submitted Neil Magny, Geoff Neal and most recently Stephen Thompson, and his dominant run has convinced many that it was only a matter of time before he fought for the title.
On the other hand, the 36-year-old Muhammad had to work a lot harder for his first title shot, going on a 10-fight winning streak in which he beat the likes of Demain Maia, Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, Sean Brady and Gabriel Burns, but it all proved to be worth the effort when he earned a unanimous decision victory over Leon Edwards last month to win the title.
It remains to be seen if and when a fight betwen Muhammad and Rakhmonov might now come to fruition, but Rakhmonov is adamant he’ll wait as long as it takes to get the opportunity he feels he deserves.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Belal and he’s going be ready at the moment,” Rakhmonov said. “If they say December, January, I’m going to be ready. If they say April, May, it doesn’t matter. I already deserve to fight for the belt. I already secured the spot and I’ll just make sure I’m going to be ready for the fight. So, whenever he’s ready, I’m in.”
