Geoff Neal is planning to ruin your night.
Longtime UFC welterweight veteran Geoff Neal (15-4) is somewhere in the +350 range after opening as the betting underdog against undefeated 170-pound phenom Shavkat Rakhmonov (16-0) ahead of their UFC Vegas 67 clash on Jan. 14 at APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That’s bad news for all the thirsty bettors looking to parlay “Nomad.”
“He has pretty good striking, decent striking and he has great cardio and he’s constantly putting pressure trying to look for the finish,” Neal told James Lynch. “Stylistically, I feel like I’m looking for the same thing. Granted, I’m not trying to grab you and hold you and put you on the ground and stuff like that, I just feel like I’m faster and stronger and that’s going to come into play during the fight. I’m a what, plus-350? I don’t give a damn about betting odds, I’m gonna mess up somebody’s parlays. But it is what it is, I ain’t worried about it. At the end of the day when the (expletive) cage door closes, the betting odds mean nothing. It’s either gonna be a three-round war or I’m gonna get the finish in the first or second.”
His last finish came with a $50,000 performance bonus.
Their three-round battle is likely to determine the trajectory of the 28 year-old Rakhmonov, who like Khamzat Chimaev before him, is being hailed as the future of the welterweight division. That said, it’s unlikely a battle-tested gamer like Neal, 32, will stick to the script on fight night.
To see who else is fighting at UFC Vegas 67 click here.