It took a while, but Shavkat Rakhmonov kept his finishing rate perfect. The Kazakh welterweight made his PPV debut at UFC 285 before his toughest test back then in Geoff Neal. After three rounds in which he absorbed more damage than in his previous four fights combined, he strangled the number eleven in the ranking after putting him in check with a stabbing knee. This fight surely was a calling card for Rakhmonov, as it marked the arrival of a phenom in the UFC. But it also played another key role.

What is it? Well, it also revealed how crazy strong the Kazakh fighter really is. Something that Joe Rogan and Max Holloway talked about on the Joe Rogan Experience. On the podcast, Rogan started talking about Rakhmonov by talking about how the Kazakh fighter apparently fought against Stephen Thompson with a broken foot. The real reason why he submitted ‘Wonderboy’ was because he couldn’t strike, so he decided to choke him out in the second round at UFC 296. “That’s why he took him down and submitted him? He couldn’t strike because he had something wrong with him.”

It is then that Max Holloway mentioned the iconic Geoff Neal and Rakhmonov fight to prove the ‘weird’ strength of the fighter. He said, “Oh yeah, bro, that guy, bro. Even when he fought Neil…what is his name? Geoff Neal…bro, who does that to him? You know how strong you gotta be to do that to Geoff Neal? Geoff Neal was two hundred pounds that night, they say. Holy s**t, he gained thirty pounds, bro. Bro, that guy (Rakhmonov) is weird strong.”

Well, the podcast clip surely makes it look like ‘Nomad’ has earned a fierce reputation in the UFC locker room for his strength. However, the 18-0-0 fighter wasn’t always the phenom that he is now. In fact, recently a video of him went viral on the internet that shows the fighter getting thrashed in the ring in what was a rare defeat for the professional mixed martial artist. So let’s find out more about this loss that contradicted Max Holloway and Joe Rogan‘s beliefs.

Shavkat Rakhmonov’s rare clip goes viral

Given that Shavkat Rakhmonov is 18-0-0, one might believe that the ‘Nomad’ has never felt defeat in his life. However, this is far from the truth. Interestingly, Rakhmonov has two losses on his resume, both to Gadzhimurad Khiramagomedov, but they occurred before he began his professional MMA career. A video uploaded by the Instagram handle ‘@blackbeltmma’ shows one of the two bouts in which Shavkat Rakhmonov lost to his opponent, Khiramagomedov.

In the video, a 19-year-old Shavkat was overpowered on the feet and especially on the ground for the first two rounds of this short video of the fight. Throughout the video, Khiramagomedov can be seen repeatedly taking ‘The Nomad’ down and holding him there. Rakhmonov further failed to score any important points against his opponent. This was a performance that surely would make many believe that this isn’t the Rakhmonov that we know.

Luckily for him, this was just an amateur fight, so it wasn’t counted as a part of his pro MMA career. But fans were truly stunned by seeing the Kazakh getting dominated in such a manner. So what do you think? Will his UFC 310 opponent Ian Garry be able to dominate Rakhmonov just like Gadzhimurad Khiramagomedov did? Let us know in the comments.