{"id":307410,"date":"2025-11-26T04:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/307410\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T04:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T04:53:12","slug":"shavkat-rakhmonov-due-for-exciting-return-to-fights-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/307410\/","title":{"rendered":"Shavkat Rakhmonov Due For Exciting Return To Fights In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shavkat Rakhmonov\u00a0<\/a>(19-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) has been on the sidelines for close to a full year. The current No. 3 contender at welterweight most recently fought under the UFC promotional banner on the night of Dec. 7, 2024 in UFC 310 from Enterprise, NV.<\/p>\n

That late fall evening, Ian Machado Garry (18-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) was his adversary on the other side of the fabled Octagon in T-Mobile Arena. Although Rakhmonov walked away as the victor, he did so after he experienced a knee injury ahead of the fight.<\/p>\n

A planned fight for UFC 315 in May of this year<\/a> from Montreal went by the wayside due to his recovery efforts. This Saturday will mark 51 weeks since Shavkat Rakhmonov last fought in the UFC, but if an appearance on Tuesday\u2019s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show<\/a>\u00a0is anything to go by, the hiatus could soon be a thing of the past.
Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Shavkat Rakhmonov Targeting Return in First Quarter of 2026<\/p>\n

During the interview with Helwani, Rakhmonov, accompanied by his translator, revealed that he\u2019s hopeful for a return appearance early on in the new year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injury didn\u2019t get worse in a fight,\u201d Shavkat Rakhmonov explained. \u201c[It was] the same scale of the injury before the fight and after the fight, and [at] first, I wanted to avoid the surgery and give a rest to the injury doing the rehab, but it wasn\u2019t enough and then I had to do surgery still.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve been out for a while,\u201d he continued. \u201cSoon, it\u2019s going to be a year. Right now, I feel good and I feel healthy. I believe I\u2019ll be ready to fight again at the end of February, probably March, so, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shavkat Rakhmonov Believes He\u2019d Be Champ at 170 If Not for Injury and Recovery<\/p>\n

A candid Shavkat Rakhmonov also mentioned to Ariel Helwani during the show that the UFC Welterweight Championship picture would have taken on a different form had it not been for his knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I think I would be champion,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you know, it [wasn\u2019t] meant to be. Life throws different things at us, so we never know. If it\u2019s meant to be for me to be champion, I\u2019m going to be champion. If not, then no.\u201d

\"\"<\/a>Rakhmonov notes that he has been authorized by his medical team to return to active competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to get back in shape because I\u2019ve been out for such a long time. It\u2019s not an easy process, you know, to get back in shape. That\u2019s why I\u2019m taking it easy, taking it slowly. I believe I will be in fight shape by the end of February, beginning of March. We\u2019ll see how the training goes now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Expect to See Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Islam Makhachev Next<\/p>\n

Even though Shavkat Rakhmonov\u2019s dream opposition for his next appearance is Islam Makhachev (28-1 MMA, 17-1 UFC), he also knows that Makhachev has a title to defend when he next steps into the cage. Makhachev recently won the UFC Welterweight Championship on Nov. 15 in Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I would prefer to fight for the title next, but I think this timeline isn\u2019t going to work for Islam,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably, he will defend his belt in April, May, that time. Of course, if I can fight Islam next, I\u2019m ready, I can do it. Also, I was supposed to fight for the title and I had a respectful reason not to take this opportunity, and I was promised also a title shot in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have to fight before [a] title shot again, I have no problem,\u201d Shavkat Rakhmonov reiterated. \u201cI can prove again that I\u2019m the No. 1 contender. I\u2019m the rightful contender. Whoever is on my timeline and whoever is going to put me in that title spot again, I\u2019m going to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shavkat Rakhmonov Right on Cusp of Title Shot<\/p>\n

Shavkat Rakhmonov has yet to lose thus far in his professional career. Although he had to miss out on a chance at the UFC Welterweight Championship because of his injury and subsequent recovery, he\u2019s still very much in the mix.<\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, he\u2019s sitting in the No. 3 spot in the rankings at welterweight. If his return fight in the first quarter of 2026 results in his 20th successive professional win, he could be as little as 25 minutes away from becoming the next champion at 170 lbs.<\/p>\n

This man has proven himself worthy to be among the elites in the welterweight division. Only time will tell, as it always does, if he\u2019ll soon be the head of the class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shavkat Rakhmonov\u00a0(19-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) has been on the sidelines for close to a full year. The current…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-307410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}