Shavkat Rakhmonov claims UFC offered title shot, but Belal Muhammad declined due to ‘timing issues’

Shavkat Rakhmonov is confident he’ll be new UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad’s next opponent — mainly because the promotion already offered him the opportunity.

“Yeah, actually, I’ve already been offered a fight to fight Belal and I accepted the fight against Belal,” Rakhmonov told MMA Fighting. “But unfortunately, he declined to fight me due to the timing issues. He wasn’t ready to defend his belt on that time. So we’ll...