34-year-old UFC welterweight Neil Magny (26-8) may become the first American opponent in the career of undefeated Kazakhstani Shavkat Rakhmonov (15-0). The Nomad challenged the seasoned fighter on Wednesday, and now the MMA world is talking about a potential fight between the two. The correspondent of bbabo.net told more about Magny and his professional career.
Magny was born in Brooklyn (New York, USA). He is of Haitian and Dominican descent. At the age of 12, together with his family, Neal moved to Illinois, where he spent his youth. It is known that Magny served in the army and is even a veteran, as he served in Kuwait.
He left the military only after getting into the UFC. It is also known that before making his debut in MMA, Neil had a choice - to be a professional fighter or become a policeman. As a result, Magny became a master of mixed martial arts.
This fighter is the owner of a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but he won most of his victories by decision - 16. He also scored seven knockouts and won three times by submission. Four times he lost by surrender, two more times by decision and knockout. In August 2010, at the age of 23, Magny made his debut in MMA among professionals. In the first nine months, he scored six victories in a row, four of which were early. The following summer, Neal suffered his first loss of his career, caught in a guillotine choke at the Combat USA tournament.
In 2012, he won another victory, and then became a member of one of the largest MMA shows - The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). In it, the American reached the semi-finals, but, despite the defeat by knockout, he left a good impression. This allowed him to sign a contract with the UFC.
But a career in the famous promotion began for Neil anxiously. First, he got a decision victory over John Manley, but then lost the next two confrontations. Following Magny reached a series of seven victories in a row, including defeating Gasan Umalatov and Tim Means. In August 2015, Magny got to the fight with the famous Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Damian Maia, whom he lost by choke in the second five-minute period. Later, he also lost ahead of schedule to the notorious Rafael dos Anjos and Santiago Ponzinibbio.
In recent years, Magny has beaten the likes of Kelvin Gastelum, Carlos Condit, Lee Jingliang, Robbie Lawler, Jeff Neal, and more. Now in the welterweight rankings, Neil is in ninth place, while Shavkat is in 15th place.
Magny has repeatedly expressed a desire to fight with Khamzat Chimaev, but now the Swede of Chechen origin "jumped" over the Nile and will meet with the second rating number Gilbert Burns. It is unlikely that after such a sign "Borza" will be interested in a duel with Magni. Therefore, Rakhmonov took advantage of this. A fighter who inspires fear in others has challenged a fighter who previously wanted to fight another "beast" of the division up to 77 kilograms. Everything is quite logical.
Neil has some interesting records in the UFC. Firstly, he has the most decision wins in welterweight history with 13. Secondly, he has 19 divisional wins, and shares the lead with Georges St-Pierre. Thirdly, he spent more than five hours and 34 minutes in the UFC cage - this is a record in weight up to 77 kilograms.
He has three bonuses for the best performance of the evening at UFC tournaments, and one more award for the best fight of the event. In 2014, he scored five victories in a calendar year, and this is still one of the most striking indicators in the history of the promotion. Despite the high rating and extensive experience in the UFC, Magny is not so popular. His fights are rarely very interesting and spectacular. But for Rakhmonov, this is a great option. After all, a victory over Magny will automatically raise the Kazakhstani immediately by six or seven lines in the ranking, and this is at least.
It should be noted that by now there has been no response from Magni to Rakhmonov's challenge.
"Collect ya * tsa in a fist and take the fight!". Shavkat Rakhmonov made a daring challenge
bbabo.Net