The fighter who challenged Shavkat Rakhmonov lost by knockout in the main UFC fight.

The fight ended in the second round. Malott clearly landed a knee to the opponent's jaw, sending him to the octagon. The Canadian tried to continue the attack, but the referee intervened and stopped the fight. ALL THE ANGLES 😮💨 @Michael_Malott timed the knee perfectly to close out #UFCEdmonton! https://t.co/8CCXwMUYVb — UFC (@ufc) October 18, 2026 Malott has won his 15th professional fight. He also has two losses and one draw. Bacli has suffered nine losses in 21 wins. Before the meeting, the American was in eighth place in the UFC middleweight ranking, and his opponent was in the 11th spot. The champion of this weight class is Islam Makhachev. We note that Shavkat Rakhmonov also competes in this division. "Қара бала, таяқ жейсің": Bacli challenged Rakhmonov In December 2025, the American fighter made a resonant statement on his social media. According to him, Rakhmonov is hiding from the confrontation, and Shavkat's team does not name him among the possible opponents. The Kazakh did not take long to come up with an answer to the challenge and commented to the bold opponent: "Қара бала, таяқ жейсің" ("Dark boy, you'll get the stick"). Screenshot: instagram.com/newmansa94/ Shavkat Rakhmonov has not fought for almost two years Recall that the undefeated Kazakh Shavkat Rakhmonov did not fight in the UFC 310 tournament, which took place on December 8, 2024. Then he won by unanimous decision against the Irishman Ian Garry. Originally, this fight was supposed to be championship for Shavkat, but the holder of the belt (Belal Muhammad at that time) withdrew from the fight due to injury. Later, Rakhmonov himself stated the injury and could not contest the championship title. After some time, the Kazakh was excluded from the UFC rankings. Earlier, the UFC president and CEO Dana White responded to the question about the return of the undefeated Kazakh Shavkat Rakhmonov to the octagon. It also became known that the UFC middleweight champion Islam Makhachev may have a title fight against Carlos Pratessa in January 2027.