Shavkat Rakhmonov is ready to fight anyone for an interim title at UFC 310 in December.
That’s what the undefeated welterweight contender said Monday in the aftermath of current 170-pound champion Belal Muhammad announcing late last week he was withdrawing from his first scheduled title defence due to a bone infection.
Muhammad was set to put his title on the line against Rakhmonov in the main event of the UFC’s Dec. 7 pay-per-view event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Rakhmonov told The Ariel Helwani Show on Monday through his manager/translator Sayat Abdrakhmanov that he wants to compete at the event to “save the card” and thinks Kamaru Usman could be a worthy opponent for a hypothetical interim title match.
Abdrakhmanov confirmed to Helwani negotiations are ongoing to keep Rakhmonov on UFC 310 but no opponent has been specified.
Usman, a former welterweight champion, teased a comeback to action on Tuesday in a social media post. The 37-year-old has not fought since losing a short-notice three-round majority decision at middleweight to Khamzat Chimaev more than a year ago. Prior to that he lost back-to-back title fights to Edwards after beginning his UFC career 15-0.
The UFC has not announced a replacement opponent for Rakhmonov, who is hoping to remain on the card, nor has the organization confirmed there will be an interim title introduced.
Muhammad wrote on social media last week that he will be on antibiotics and will not be able to train for six weeks.
Rakhmonov suspects Muhammad will be out of action long enough to warrant being placed in an interim title bout with a unification bout eventually taking place in 2025.
Muhammad, 36, became the organization’s 170-pound champion in July when he defeated Leon Edwards by unanimous decision at UFC 304 in England. He is unbeaten in 11 consecutive bouts over the past five years.
Rakhmonov is 18-0 in mixed martial arts with 18 finishes. The 30-year-old from Kazakhstan is 6-0 at the UFC level and coming off a submission win over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson late last year.
UFC 310 was announced with a co-main event between men’s flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and highly touted promotional newcomer Kai Asakura. That 125-pound bout is not, however, a strong enough matchup to headline the organization’s final numbered event of the year.
GDR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
The UFC’s inaugural women’s featherweight champion, Germaine de Randamie, announced her retirement from MMA at the age of 40.
The Dutch kickboxer announced on social media she had made the decision to not fight past 2024 and that she had been begging the UFC to book her for one more fight. She claims the organization insisted the remaining cards are filled up already, so she decided to call it a career.
After a successful kickboxing career, de Randamie transitioned full-time to MMA but she only fought 10 times during her 11-year UFC tenure, winning the inaugural women’s 145-pound championship at UFC 208 in 2017 only to be stripped of the title later that year after refusing to defend it against Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
De Randamie went 7-3 during her interesting UFC career with two of her losses coming to Amanda Nunes and wins over fellow UFC champions Julianna Pena, Raquel Pennington and Holly Holm.
COUPLE CANUCKS RISE IN THE RANKINGS
Canadian fighters did well overall this past weekend in Edmonton, and two of the winning fighters made a bit of noise when the UFC’s official rankings updated on Tuesday.
Women’s flyweight Jasmine Jasudavicius moved up one spot to No. 13 at 125 pounds after her second submission win of the year. Jasudavicius tapped out Ariane Da Silva to extend her winning streak to three in a row.
Meanwhile, Aiemann Zahabi debuted in the men’s bantamweight rankings thanks to his impressive unanimous decision win over Pedro Munhoz. Zahabi has won five in a row and went 2-0 in 2024. He is in line for another ranked opponent at 135 pounds in his next outing.
ROMANOV RELEASED
Another victorious fighter from UFC Edmonton, Alexander Romanov, did not get rewarded in the rankings for getting his hand raised.
Instead, the UFC decided to release the heavyweight or at least not renew his contract, as he was removed from the UFC roster.
Romanov entered the weekend as the No. 13-ranked UFC heavyweight contender and won a unanimous decision over No. 15-ranked Rodrigo Nascimento, but it was yet another Romanov fight that lacked much action or excitement.
The 33-year-old began his UFC career 5-0 but has since gone 2-3 over his past five outings.