“Cannot imagine life without it!” Horse-meat lover Shavkat Rakhmonov talks love for fringe animal meat

Shavkat Rakhmonov discusses his preference for horse meat and future horseriding aspirations, highlighting cultural influences on his lifestyle and interests outside the octagon.

“Cannot imagine life without it!” Horse-meat lover Shavkat Rakhmonov talks love for fringe animal meat

Shavkat Rakhmonov likes horse meat (Image via: IMAGO, YouTube/UFC)

Shavkat Rakhmonov will face Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the featured bout of the UFC 296 PPV. The fight has the potential for the winner to earn a title shot next. Rakhmonov is in training camp at Kill Cliff MMA and missed his sister’s wedding due to the fight camp.

Luke Thomas of the Morning Kombat recently interviewed Rakhmonov, where the welterweight divulged a lot of matters. In the interview, Rakhmonov talked about his favorite food. This is what he said:

For me, the horse meat is the best meat in the world because it's the tastiest. It has much more vitamins in it. Every Kazakh cannot imagine his life without horse meat.
Shavkat Rakhmonov via The Morning Kombat
YouTube video

Rakhmonov liked horse meat because it was tasty and had ample nutrients. Moreover, horse meat was part of the staple diet in Kazakhstan. In addition to his love for horse meat, he is also an avid horseback rider. He planned to have a horseriding career after finishing his MMA career. Horses are part of the culture of Kazakhstan.

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Rakhmonov has a 100 percent finish rate in professional MMA. Of his five victories in the UFC, four came via submission and one via TKO. In addition to his fight with Wonderboy, there is another high-profile welterweight fight on the main card of UFC 296. Ian Garry will face Vicente Luque at UFC 296. Both Garry and Luque have trained with Rakhmonov.

Shavkat Rakhmonov explains why Combat Sambo made his transition to Mixed Martial Arts easy

Combat Sambo practitioners have one of the best records in professional MMA. Almost all the MMA fighters from Dagestan have a Combat Sambo base. Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and current champion Islam Makhachev have a Sambo background. Makhachev competed and won against Zabit Magomedsharipov at the Russian Combat Sambo Championship in 2016.

Shavkat Rakhmonov
Shavkat Rakhmonov (Image via: IMAGO)

In the interview on Morning Kombat, Rakhmonov explained why Combat Sambo practitioners have it easy transitioning to MMA. This is what he said:

Sambo is close to MMA because I was doing Combat Sambo, and we have everything in there, like boxing, wrestling, everything.

Like MMA, Combat Sambo uses elements of boxing and wrestling. Rakhmonov felt that it made it easy for him to transition to MMA. However, he also acknowledged that it was different for every person. Colby Covington, who headlines UFC 296, thinks that wrestling remains the best base for MMA. He shares his opinion with former foe, long-time welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, and retired two-division champion Daniel Cormier.

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