Kamaru Usman says Shavkat Rakhmonov 'a very winnable fight,' but UFC 310 might be too soon

Kamaru Usman admits UFC 310 may be too soon for him to compete.

Shavkat Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was scheduled to challenge welterweight champion Belal Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) in the Dec. 7 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but Muhammad was forced out due to a bone infection in his foot.

Former UFC welterweight champion Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) expressed interest in stepping in against Rakhmonov. He’s currently in Colorado getting ready in case he gets the call, and is confident in how he matches up against undefeated Rakhmonov.

However, Usman has a bit of an issue with the date of the fight.

“To be honest, it’s a fight that I’ve looked at, and I know it’s definitely a very, very winnable fight,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “And I know that I can, of all people, go out there and expose what hasn’t been exposed in a young, hungry, streaky guy in Shavkat Rakhmonov.

“He’s very talented, and he’s very, very good. But I do see the holes, and I think that I can exploit that when that time is right. But Dec. 7 might be a little too early for that time. So that’s where I’m at.”

The most recent time Usman competed was also on short notice. He stepped in to face another undefeated phenom in Khamzat Chimaev, pushing him to the brink in a majority decision loss at UFC 294 in October 2023. “The Nigerian Nightmare” currently is on a three-fight losing skid, with two of those losses coming back-to-back to Leon Edwards in title fights.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.