Neil
Magny just keeps chugging along. Magny was far from a
guaranteed success as a UFC fighter, as he was mostly an
afterthought coming off of TUF in 2012, but he managed to round
things out and put together a surprisingly successful run from 2014
to 2016, notable for the sheer volume of wins that Magny was able
to pack in during such a short time. Magny can be a tricky test, as
his long frame and willingness to throw out volume often frustrates
his opponent into pursuing the clinch, where "The Haitian
Sensation" is often at his best. But that does mean that fighters
with elite skills can completely tear apart his game; sharper
strikers like Lorenz
Larkin and Santiago
Ponzinibbio have pressured Magny and taken him apart without
much issue, and Michael
Chiesa most notably plain out-wrestled Magny in a straight-up
grind. That's left Magny occupying a clear niche in the
welterweight division, essentially serving as the clear litmus test
as to whether someone has contender potential - a role he slides
into once again opposite Kazakhstan's Shavkat
Rakhmonov. Rakhmonov came up through the ranks against a strong
level of competition, but mostly did so by separating himself as a
bullying athlete; so the question was how "Nomad" would fare
against the better athletes dotting the UFC roster. Well, so far as
good. There have been some moments when Rakhmonov has been
overpowered in the clinch, but he's proven to be both a knockout
artist and a savvy grappler - in his UFC debut, he locked horns
with a physical powerhouse in Alex
Oliveira and was able to find a fight-ending guillotine choke
within a round. There's a decent chance that Rakhmonov can just
blow through Magny here and announce himself as a contender, either
via his powerful counterstriking or just turning out to be the
stronger fighter in the clinch. But a lot of Rakhmonov's approach
does wind up with him clinching up with his opponents and he can be
controlled; it's not necessarily a guarantee, but that appears to
be the opening that Magny needs to turn this into yet another
Neil
Magny type of fight. This figures to be a narrow win and
Rakhmonov will be fine in the long run, but the pick is Magny via
decision.
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