Shavkat Rakhmonov has finally found a fight in the form of former welterweight title challenger Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson.
Rakhmonov vs Wonderboy Set for UFC 296
UPDATE: Stephen Thompson will face Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 296, UFC announced Friday.
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 23, 2023
The pair of welterweights are set to fight at UFC 296 in Las Vegas December 16th according to UFC CEO and president Dana White.
Rakhmonov (17-0) previously fought Geoff Neal at UFC 285 in March, defeating Neal via standing rear naked choke.
“Nomad” was set to make his second appearance of the year in September 16th against Kelvin Gastelum until Gastelum pulled out due to injury, which resulted in the UFC unable to find a replacement for the Kazakhstan native.
For Thompson (17-6-1), he is yet to compete in 2023. “Wonderboy” was slated to fight Michel Pereira at UFC 291 this past August, but the fight did not materialize due to Pereira missing weight by three pound above the 170-lbs. limit. The Karate specialist did not accept a catch weight fight and instead opted out of the event altogether.
Thompson’s most recent outing was in December last year where he defeated Kevin Holland by TKO due to a corner stoppage that cited Holland having a broken hand. The bout earned fight of the night honors and had ended a two fight losing skid for Thompson.
