Shavkat Rakhmonov's manager Daniel Rubenstein has shut down rumors of a UFC return against Jack Della Maddalena, calling them completely false and inaccurate. Rubenstein said Della Maddalena has not been mentioned as an opponent and that Rakhmonov will not be returning in January. The undefeated welterweight has been out since beating Ian Machado Garry in 2024 and has been recovering from a knee injury that required several surgeries.
Shavkat Rakhmonov will not fight in January, and his camp says Jack Della Maddalena was never discussed as an opponent. Manager Daniel Rubenstein dismissed the circulating rumors as completely false and inaccurate, as first reported by Bloody Elbow.
Rubenstein said Della Maddalena has not been mentioned in connection with a Rakhmonov return and that the welterweight will not be back in the cage in January. The undefeated Kazakh has been out since his win over Ian Machado Garry in 2024 and has been recovering from a knee injury that required several surgeries.
Rakhmonov, 32, is 19-0 and fights out of DAR Team. The six-foot-four Orthodox fighter has a 77-inch reach and lands 3.25 significant strikes per minute at 60 percent accuracy. He also averages 1.4 takedowns and 1.2 submission attempts per 15 minutes. His most recent recorded fight was the unanimous-decision victory over Machado Garry on December 7, 2024, at UFC 310, a five-round bout. Before that, he submitted Stephen Thompson in the second round at UFC 296 and Geoff Neal in the third at UFC 285.
Della Maddalena, 30, is 18-4 and ranked fourth at welterweight, with a 13th-place pound-for-pound ranking. The Australian, who trains at Scrappy MMA, lands 5.57 significant strikes per minute, well above Rakhmonov's rate. His most recent recorded fight was a third-round KO/TKO loss to Carlos Prates on May 2, 2026, following a unanimous-decision loss to Islam Makhachev in a title fight at UFC 322 in November 2025.
Why it matters
- Rakhmonov's unbeaten record stays on hold, with no return date and no named opponent in the picture.
- The gap in activity is stark: his last recorded bout was in December 2024, while Della Maddalena has fought twice since, in November 2025 and May 2026.
- On paper, the rumored matchup would have pitted Rakhmonov's submission threat against Della Maddalena's volume striking. His 0.13 takedowns per 15 minutes suggests he rarely looks to wrestle.
Machado Garry, the only other fighter tied to Rakhmonov in this story, was beaten by Rakhmonov two years ago in the five-round decision and is now ranked first at welterweight. Rubenstein offered no timeline for the knee recovery beyond ruling out January.
