American welterweight Joaquin Buckley made an extremely grim prediction regarding the future of undefeated Kazakh Shavkat Rakhmonov. The occasion was the recent removal of "Nomad" from the official promotion rankings—Shavkat, who previously held the 2nd spot, dropped out of the list after a repeat serious knee injury and a second operation.
In the latest episode of the Overdogs Podcast, Buckley didn't hold back his emotions:
"They didn't just remove him from the rankings—they could potentially get rid of him altogether because he hasn't competed for so long. Shavkat just blew his chance. I would have gone out to fight even with an injured leg, just to stay in the rankings. And now he's gone, and it's madness.
I'm making a prediction right now: we'll never see Shavkat in the UFC again. He doesn't create content, he doesn't keep his name in the spotlight. Colby Covington is at least constantly in the media, performs in the RAF, stays relevant. But about Shavkat, we only hear negativity—injuries, downtime. Fans will lose interest in him and just forget. And you know what the UFC's next step will be? They'll send him back to Kazakhstan."
The last time Rakhmonov stepped into the octagon was in December 2024 at UFC 310, where he defeated Irishman Ian Garry via unanimous decision—the very one who now occupies the vacated second spot in the rankings. Since then, the Kazakh has not appeared in the cage for over a year, and recent injury recurrence, according to sources, sidelines him at least until the end of this year.
