A video of UFC Welterweight Shavkat ‘Nomad’ Rakhmonov making his MMA debut has gone viral.
The clip shows him being cornered by legendary MMA coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
Rakhmonov made his debut at the M-1 Challenge 52 at the age of 19. He faced Adam Tsurov and won by submission in the first round.
The video showed him celebrating his win, with Nurmagomedov celebrating with him.
Fast forward to 8 years later, and Rakhmonov is currently an undefeated UFC Welterweight contender. He became the first ever competitor from Kazakhstan to be signed by the UFC and is now ranked 10th in his division.
Rakhmonov joined the company in 2020 and has had 4 bouts since then.
He quickly became renowned for his wrestling skills, which is a pattern amongst all of Abdulmanap’s trainees.
What’s also notable is that he has a 100% finish rate up untill now.
As far as his record is concerned, Rakhmonov is currently 16-0. He is coming off a submission win against UFC vet Neil Magny. The two competed at UFC on ESPN 38 in June.
Now, he’s set to compete at UFC 285 against the 7th ranked welterweight, Geoff Neal.
The bout with Neal was supposed to happen this weekend, however, Neal pulled out due to injury.
Fans and media speculated that Khamzat Chimaev might step up to finally face Rakhmonov.
This is because Chimaev and Rakhmonov are often named as rising stars in Welterweight division. The two have also had some less than stellar exchanges with Chimaev allegedly hurling a slur at the Kazakh.
Chimaev has very little to gain by accepting the match up. Right now, his profile is far beyond Rakhmonov.
Many speculate that Chimaev will end up going up to Middleweight due to the difficulty he’s previously had making welterweight (170lbs). As for Rakhmonov, if he were to win against Neal he would cement his path toward the welterweight title.