‘You said you were ready to fight anyone’ – Undefeated UFC prospect Rakhmonov calls out Magny

Shavkat Rakhmonov has set his sights on Neil Magny because no one else wants to fight him.

Following a stint with M-1 Global, Rakhmonov joined the UFC and earned finishes of Alex Oliveira, Michel Prazeres and Carlston Harris in his three Octagon appearances. The undefeated welterweight has already been compared to Khamzat Chimaev, yet another highly touted prospect who also found it difficult to find opponents after his arrival to the promotion.

Frustrated with supposedly being turned down by Li Jingliang, Rakhmonov decided to assume the role of matchmaker and took to Twitter to challenge Magny since he was willing to fight anyone.

“Now I have a couple of fighters in my sights, one already refuses to fight me and the other claims that he is ready to fight anyone,” wrote Rakhmonov. “[Li Jingliang] get your balls together. [Neil Magny] you said you were ready to fight anyone, let’s do it if Lee [sic] still doesn’t have the guts to.”

Magny has since responded to Rakhmonov, with the ‘Haitian Sensation’ more than happy to meet the ‘Nomad’ in the near future. In a recent interview with MMANews’ James Lynch, Magny explained how Rakhmonov caught his attention following his split decision win over Max Griffin at UFC Columbus this past Saturday.

Now officially on his radar, Magny would fight Rakhmonov as long as it gets him closer to a championship opportunity he is pursuing.

“I’ve definitely seen him fight before,” said Magny. “It wasn’t a guy that I particularly followed or was on my radar so to speak as a potential opponent or matchup or anything like that. But after the fight, once he had the callout, his goon squad did a good job of making me notice that he was calling me out.

“I don’t even know if he’s ranked top 15 at all,” continued Magny. “At this point, I just want to fight a ranked opponent and keep moving forward. I took a big risk in fighting a dangerous opponent like Max Griffin and I just want to make sure that the fights I’m taking are actually getting me towards my goal, which is being UFC champion. Do I love being active? Sure, absolutely. But at the end of the day, I want to make sure that the fights that I’m choosing are actually lining up with my goals overall.”

Rakhmonov is indeed ranked, currently sitting at No. 15 in the division. Ahead of him is Magny, who occupies the No. 9 spot and is now on a two-fight win streak.