UFC 296: Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson Official

UFC 296 is stacking up. Earlier this week, the event was made official for December 16th in Las Vegas, Nevada with the event being headlined by Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington. Now, Dana White announced two more fights for the event today. First, Paddy Pimblett vs Tony Ferguson, as well as Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson.

UFC 296: Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson

Shavkat Rahkmono is 17-0 and has been on a tear in the UFC. He was supposed to fight this past weekend at Noche UFC against Kelvin Gastelum, but the fight was cancelled due to Gastelum being injured in camp. Shavkat has been calling out anyone for a fight, and now he has one. Rahkmonov has a 100% finish rate, putting away all of his opponents by Knockout or Submission, which he’s most recently coming off of when he choked out Geoff Neal back in March. Now, he has his next opponent and it’s unlike anyone he’s fought before.

On the other side of the octagon is Stephen ‘WonderBoy” Thompson. A veteran of the game and is coming off a win, beating Kevin Holland back in December of 2022. Thompson was supposed to fight Michel Pereira back in July at UFC 291, but the fight was cancelled due to Pereira missing weight on fight week. Stephen has been very vocal about not being a gate keeper in the welterweight division despite being a veteran. He’s made it clear that he wants one more run at the gold, and what better way to do that than knocking off the undefeated Rahkmonov.

There’s potential that the winner of this fight could face the winner of the main event between Edwards and Covington for the championship down the line. Tickets for UFC 296 go on sale October 20th.

From: Brady Alexander

Also, read https://nosmokesport.com/mma/ufc-296-paddy-pimblett-vs-tony-ferguson/