“No, I don’t consider a fight with Rakhmonov to be punishment,” Vanderboi said on another edition of The MMA Hour program. “I wanted to fight Kamaru Usman, I challenged him, but something was already prepared for him. I wanted to fight someone who is ahead of me in the rankings. Most of the opponents I faced were behind me – Jeff Neal, Vicente Luque, and even Pereira, who I gave a chance to move up, but he couldn’t even make weight. So, I wanted someone who is above me in the rankings, and it didn’t matter to me who exactly that would be”
“I wasn’t able to get the fight with Usman and that left only Shawkat. He was supposed to fight Kelvin Gastelum, who got a dissection, so he didn’t have an opponent either. I had seen him on social media and knew he was higher than me in the rankings. I was offered a fight with Shawkat a year and a half ago, the UFC wanted me to fight him, but honestly, I had no idea who he was back then
Earlier, the American said that for the fight with Rakhmonov will receive a double fee, taking into account the amount that he was not paid for the canceled fight with Pereira.
Recall that the bout of top welterweights will take place on December 16 at UFC 296 in Las Vegas.