Shavkat
Rakhmonov isn’t ready to say that his
Ultimate Fighting Championship career is over, but the unbeaten
welterweight admits his return is far from guaranteed.
Rakhmonov has been sidelined since defeating Ian Garry in
December 2024. He entered that bout with a knee injury and it left
a long-lasting impact. In a new interview, he reflected on the
fight and where he stands in the 170-pound division.
Advertisement
Shavkat Rakhmonov details the knee injury that has kept him
sidelined since beating Ian Garry
“Nomad” admits that he should not have competed with his injury. He
also took a shot at Dagestani stars Khabib
Nurmagomedov and Islam
Makhachev, claiming they would never fight injured.
“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.
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 then delved deeper into how his injury worsened during
the Garry fight.
“I already had an injury going into the Ian Garry fight,” he added.
“I stepped in; I hadn’t fought for a year; I wanted to 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.”