Welterweight fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov was set to face welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, but the champion had to withdraw due to an infection. Following this, Rakhmonov is looking for another fight to step up and has expressed his interest in facing Kamaru Usman.
Rakhmonov made his desire known to the UFC, and it seems Usman is also open to the idea. The “Nigerian Nightmare” told the Pound 4 Pound podcast that he is prepared to face Rakhmonov at UFC 310 and will be open to squaring off against the “Nomad” despite having shared a training space in the past.
“First of all, let me clarify something: We’re not teammates,” Usman said on his Pound-4-Pound podcast. “He comes in and trains in my gym where I was for most of my career until the last four or five years, which I’m still in that gym. That’s [Henry Hooft’s] gym. Kill Cliff now is the name, but he’s not my teammate per se.
“But if the UFC’s going to call who they think is going to be legit tough enough and man enough to step in there, is crazy enough to step in there on short notice and go out there and possibly shock the world, definitely the UFC know who to call when that situation happens. And if they do give me a call, I’m going to answer the call, we’ll get a couple of things straight and if we’ve got to do it, we’ve got to do it. I don’t shy away from any of that. I’ve done it on six days’ notice. I’ve done it on eight days’ notice and hey, this is only a couple of weeks’ notice.”
Usman wished Muhammad a speedy recovery and said the fighter should be given ample time to heal and recover. The Nigerian fighter has always wanted a matchup with Muhammad to regain the title. However, the fight never came to fruition.
“That’s my personal belief. I do sometimes think he does act like a dork, but Belal, he’s a man,” Usman said. “He’s a man at the same time. He’s a competitor, he’s a fighter, and I would never want to see that happen to anyone. I’ve dealt with series of series of injuries and it’s never fun, especially when this is our livelihood. This is how he feeds his family, so I would never, ever want something like that to happen. So hope for a speedy recovery for Mr. Belal Muhammad.”
Usman is on a three-fight losing streak and has been searching for a comeback. A fight with Rakhmonov is a perfect opportunity to make a return since his recent loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294.
