Is S͏hav͏ka͏t ͏Rakhmonov ducking the former interim welte͏rweight champion, Colby Covington? The answer m͏ight be a͏ resoundi͏n͏g ‘no,’ but ‘Chaos͏’ see͏ms to think o͏the͏rwise. Covington believes that ͏the ͏Kazakh ͏fighter is intentio͏nally avoiding a fight against him. ͏The All-A͏merican ͏is set to head͏lin͏e UFC Tampa aga͏inst ͏J͏o͏aquin ͏Buckl͏ey this Saturday, but it wasn’͏t ‘Ne͏w Mansa’͏ he initi͏ally wante͏d to face. Instead, Covington had͏ his sights ͏set on ͏Rakhmono͏v for UFC 310.͏ However, accor͏din͏g to ͏Covington͏, the Kaza͏kh warrior may ha͏ve do͏dged ͏the ͏matc͏hu͏p. In his latest conversation, ‘Chaos’ has revealed a new angle to the story.

Before commenting on his side of the ͏story, C͏olby Cov͏ingto͏n gave a very strict report ͏of his thoughts on the Ian ͏Garry vs. Shavkat Rakhmono͏v͏ c͏lash. “Chaos” emphasize͏d that h͏e found the ͏matchup irrelevant, “I heard it was a boring fight between the c–k and s– rat, Just a stalemate, just didn’t want to fight. That’s not what the UFC is all about and that’s why their stock dropped. No one gives a s— about them. They were already irrelevant, but now they’re even more irrelevant.”

Going further into the beef with Shavkat Rakhmonov, Colby Covington revealed his side of the story. As of now, we know Shavkat Rakhmonov was offered to fight either Kamaru Usman or Colby Covington at UFC 310 but ‘Chaos’ turned it down, Prates was injured and Kamaru accepted the fight at first, but ended up rejecting it in the end. This is the version we got from ‘Nomad’s side but what is the truth? Well, in his latest conversation on Twitch, Colby Covington has come forward to assert that he willingly offered to fight Rakhmonov but it was he who turned it down, “Sh- rat is ducking me. I called UFC, Hunter Campbell, and Dana White to fight sh- rat.”

He further added, “That’s the only fight I wanted, to fight him. I didn’t care about anybody else and they said they want to do the c- fight. Undefeated vs. undefeated because it made sense to them. Once I volunteered to fight sh– rat, then they said, ‘Hey, if you want to fight, come save the day against Buckley,’ so then I had to come in and fight him.” The backdoor conversation between the top brass of the promotion and the fighters may not be released to the MMA community for good reasons but Colby Covington is not in a mood to keep it hidden.

S͏havka͏t ͏Rakhmono͏v and Ian Garry, both͏ ͏un͏defeated fighter͏s, gave t͏heir all i͏n a gru͏el͏ing five-round fight, aiming͏ t͏o cement͏ their status͏ as the ͏ne͏x͏t welter͏wei͏ght ti͏tle challenge͏r. Howe͏ver, after a hard͏-fought bat͏tle,͏ it was ͏Ra͏khmonov who emerged ͏vi͏ctorious. Ian Garry lost his zero and Rakhmonov lost his 100% finishing rate. The ending of the contest was a class act from both the fighters as they hugged each other and celebrated the bout. Well, Colby Covington has asserted that he has never ducked Rakhmonov but what about Kamaru Usman? Why did the former welterweight GOAT never appear at UFC 310?

Kamaru Usman gave his side of story way ahead of Colby Covington

Now en route to a title clash against Belal Muhammad, Shavkat Rakhmonov had claimed that only Carlos Prates had a genuine reason to not fight him due to his injury while he thrashed the other two [Usman and Covington]. Responding to this, the MMA community questioned Kamaru Usman about it on his podcast episode, to which he said, “This is a fight that I was potentially going to slide into. I’ve touched on this a million times, which is crazy to me because I’m seeing online people like, ‘Aw, you scared? You ducking? You ducking? You scared? You scared?’ What?”

He further added, “I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ This is the same sentiment that I feel like people are doing to Jon Jones,” The ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ didn’t like the way the fans questioned him about ducking Shavkat Rakhmonov considering the fact that a few years back he was the welterweight champion. Usman lashed out at the fans, “It’s just like when people, where you’re fans or fans of a fighter don’t get their desired wish that they want, ‘That’s the fight I want,’ then it’s like, ‘That guy must be scared because he didn’t take the fight,” said Usman.

Furthermore, Usman reminded the MMA community of the dominant fighter he was during his prime, “I have 22 or 25 fights, I don’t know how many fights, but you think everyone, ‘Oh, you scared.’ World champion and defending belts time and time again, ‘Oh, he’s scared.’ Shut up. Just because you didn’t get what you wanted. Guess what, it’s like your mom telling you, ‘No, you can’t have that toy today.’ So shut your mouth.”

‘The Nigerian nightmare’ is riding a three-fight losing streak and has yet to step inside the Octagon after his last loss against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 and the MMA community appears to be impatient for answers now. Regardless, when do you think will the former champion step back into the Octagon? State your thoughts in the comments below.