Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Sean Brady “isn’t happening”, per manager

Shavkat Rakhmonov and Sean Brady throwing down in the octagon in a few months was going around the rumor mill recently until a representative of the former came out to clarify some things.

A report from Sportilinet.Kz intimated that this battle of ranked welterweights would happen in the final quarter of 2025. The report from the Kazakhstan-based media source intimated that Brady versus Rakhmonov was in the works for the looming UFC Qatar card.

Rakhmonov’s manager Daniel Rubenstein came out to dispute this report and dispelled any notion that we would see his client inside the cage on this reported bout for the November 22nd event. In a message posted to his personal social media, with a screenshot since obtained by the Inside Fighting Instagram account, Rubenstein said,

“When will you people learn when you don’t check BOTH sides, you’ll just keep spitting fake news bulls**t. This fight isn’t happening and certainly won’t happen in November.”

Shavkat Rakhmonov, and when Sean Brady called him out

Shavkat Rakhmonov and Sean Brady had a bit of a quasi-interaction with each other earlier this month, with Brady calling out the undefeated MMA fighter for a separate card in November. Sean Brady had his eyes set on the upcoming Madison Square Garden event, which was indicated by him on an episode of The BradyBagz Show from a few weeks ago when Brady stated [via Bloody Elbow],

“Shavkat was saying something about him coming back in November or December, so if he’s coming back in November, I want to fight soon, but I would wait and fight him at MSG on the same card as Jack and Islam, and then that’s a true No. 1 contender’s fight.”

“Because he was guaranteed a [title] fight, I beat the No. 1 guy, whoever wins that will be the true No. 1 contender, so I would like to do that. We’re going to reach out this week and see if that’s an option.”

Brady and Rakhmonov occupy the number two and three rankings spots, respectively, in the welterweight hierarchy, as of this writing. The callout from Brady to Rakhmonov at MSG was a calculated callout considering their proximity to the discussed date and event for Islam Makhachev taking on Jack Della Maddalena for JDM’s welterweight belt, although this has yet to be officially confirmed.

Sean Brady last defeated former UFC welterweight titleholder Leon Edwards, while Rakhmonov has yet to compete this calendar year. Shavkat Rakhmonov’s last win came against Ian Machado Garry on points at UFC 310 last December.