Geoff Neal suffered a late injury and was forced to withdraw from his Shavkat Rakhmonov fight at the UFC Vegas 67 event on Jan. 14 inside APEX in Las Vegas; however, the promotion was able to rebook their 170-pound contest for the upcoming UFC 285 pay-per-view (PPV) card on March 4, also in “Sin City.”
That’s according to ESPN.
Neal improved to 15-4 by knocking out Vicente Luque at the UFC Vegas 59 event last August. It was the second straight win for “Handz of Steel,” who previously outlasted welterweight bruiser Santiago Ponzinibbio at the UFC 269 PPV back in late 2021.
Rakhmonov is a perfect 16-0 with all 16 wins ending by way of knockout or submission. “Nomad” was last seen strangling well-traveled veteran Neil Magny at UFC Vegas 57, a performance good enough to land him at No. 10 in the official welterweight rankings.
Time to separate contender from pretender.
UFC 285 does not yet have a main event but several interesting matchups have been booked, including the middleweight showdown between Bo Nickal and Jamie Pickett. Elsewhere on the card, Derek Brunson and Dricus Du Plessis collide at 185 pounds.