![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/okamoto_brett.png&h=80&w=80&scale=crop.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Brett OkamotoFeb 1, 2026, 10:39 AM<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n UFC welterweight contender Shavkat Rakhmonov<\/a>, who missed all of 2025 because of injuries to his knee, is expected to miss most of 2026 after injuring the knee again, his manager, Daniel Rubenstein, said Saturday.<\/p>\n Rakhmonov (19-0) recently underwent surgery on the knee and is expected to miss nine months, Rubenstein said. He has not fought since December 2024, when he defeated Ian Machado Garry<\/a> in a five-round unanimous decision at UFC 310.<\/p>\n Fighting out of Kazakhstan, Rakhmonov has been the unofficial dark horse of the UFC’s 170-pound division for several years. He finished his first 18 professional opponents before going the distance with Garry. Rakhmonov also holds notable wins over Stephen Thompson<\/a> and Geoff Neal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite 13 months of inactivity, Rakhmonov is currently ranked No. 2 in the UFC’s welterweight division. He had been targeting a return to the Octagon this spring before his injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoFeb 1, 2026, 10:39 AM CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-450670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}