The first UFC event of 2023 has taken a major hit.
Due to an undisclosed injury, [autotag]Geoff Neal[/autotag] (15-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) has been forced out of his UFC Fight Night 217 welterweight co-main event bout against [autotag]Shavkat Rakhmonov[/autotag] (16-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on Jan. 14 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It is unknown if Rakhmonov will remain on the card.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the news to MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Reporter Igor Lazorin was first to report the news.
Rakhmonov took to Twitter to react to the news.
“Apparently @handzofsteelmma is all talk”
Apparently @handzofsteelmma is all talk
— Shavkat “Nomad” Rakhmonov (@Rakhmonov1994) December 29, 2022
Neal, meanwhile, wrote on Facebook that “nobody’s scared” and he’s looking to reschedule the fight.
Rakhmonov, 28, has finished all his professional wins – eight by knockout and eight by submission. The unbeaten rising star is coming off a submission over Neil Magny in June which earned him a Performance of the Night bonus.
Neal has also built some momentum in the welterweight division. “Handz of Steel” scored back-to-back wins over Santiago Ponzinibbio, and a third-round knockout of Vicente Luque in August.
With the change, the UFC Fight Night 217 lineup now includes:
- Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov
- Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. TBA
- Roman Kopylov vs. Punahele Soriano
- Dan Ige vs. Damon Jackson
- Carlos Hernandez vs. Allan Nascimento
- Jimmy Flick vs. Charles Johnson
- Raquel Pennington vs. Ketlen Vieira
- Daniel Argueta vs. Isaac Dulgarian
- Nick Fiore vs. Mateusz Rebecki
- Raoni Barcelos vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Claudio Ribeiro
- Javid Basharat vs. Mateus Mendonca
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