Shavkat Rakhmonov has all the tools to rule the welterweight division, yet fate keeps cutting him off at the knees. The undefeated Kazakh wrecking machine sits at 19-0, having finished every single opponent since debuting in 2020. He’s carved through the welterweight ranks with clinical violence, stopping names. By the time he stacked a 100% finish rate, analysts and fans alike had already stamped him as the inevitable future of the division. But momentum in MMA can be a fragile thing.

Detours have riddled Rakhmonov’s once-unstoppable rise. After running through Thompson at UFC 296 in December 2023, a “very serious” ankle injury shelved him for nearly a year. He finally returned at UFC 310 against Ian Garry, but a knee injury from the fight forced him back on the shelf, costing him a UF

See Full Page