Shavkat Rakhmonov and Khamzat Chimaev looked destined to collide for a brief stretch. At the time, both fighters were unbeaten and climbing the UFC welterweight rankings.
Rakhmonov now looks back on that period with a more measured view. He remembers the interest surrounding the matchup, particularly because both fighters were undefeated and represented neighboring countries from the post-Soviet region.
According to Rakhmonov, the tension began after Chimaev appeared to post something on Instagram. That triggered a back-and-forth between the two, although Rakhmonov stopped short of describing it as a major personal feud.
During a recent episode of the ALF Podcast, he said:
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“It was an interesting situation. But you have to remember, at that time Khamzat was getting a lot of hype, and we both had perfect professional records too. We were both undefeated in our MMA careers. He wrote something on Instagram… And that’s when it all started… We had a bit of a serious conflict between us.”
He added:
“Later he realized there’s no point in shouting, ‘Come on! Let’s fight.’ There was no point anymore. My weight class is 77 [welterweight]. I’m not big enough to move up to 84 [middleweight] or other weight classes. I feel comfortable.”
Check out Shavkat Rakhmonov‘s comments below (auto-dubbed from 18:45):
Shavkat Rakhmonov admits fighting Ian Machado Garry injured came with a risk
Shavkat Rakhmonov believes his decision to fight Ian Machado Garry while carrying a serious knee injury was a risk that many fighters would have avoided. Rakhmonov revealed that he entered the bout with a damaged meniscus and ACL, despite his leg being swollen and the injury still causing significant problems.
He suggested that fighters such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev would have made a different choice and refused to compete under similar circumstances. In the aforementioned podcast episode, he said:
“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… I already had an injury going into the Ian Garry fight. 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.”
Edited by Abhishek Nambiar