Eduard Bazorov, the coach of Kazakh UFC fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov, said the athlete will not be able to return to the octagon in 2026 due to his health condition, according to infohub.kz.
Bazorov noted that Rakhmonov's condition does not allow him to hold full training camps. However, doctors do not prohibit him from attending training sessions and give a positive prognosis for his rehabilitation. "At the moment, Shavkat is recovering his leg and trains once a day. We do physical preparation and boxing – what we can, we do. We cannot give exact return dates because everyone recovers differently. I think next year. In my opinion, in February 2027 he may be fully ready for a fight, but it's still impossible to give exact dates for when Shavkat Rakhmonov will recover," said Eduard Bazorov.
The coach added that once Rakhmonov recovers, he will immediately be given a top opponent, as the Kazakh fighter was ranked second in the UFC welterweight division at the time of his injury. Recall that at the end of May, it became known that Shavkat Rakhmonov had returned to training after a long break. His last fight took place in December 2024 at UFC 310, where he defeated Ireland's Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision, maintaining his undefeated record at 19–0. After that, the Kazakh spent a long time out of the octagon due to health problems and dropped out of the top rankings of the UFC welterweight division.