Shavkat Rakhimov

Shavkatdzhon Shokirovich Rakhimov (born 14 August 1994) is a Tajikistani professional boxer. He held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior lightweight title from 2022 to 2023 and the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) super-featherweight title from 2017 to 2019. As of June 2023, he is ranked as the world's fifth best active super-featherweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, fourth by BoxRec and fifth by The Ring.

Amateur career
In 2013, Rakhimov won a gold medal at the Tajikistan National Championships in Dushanbe in June, and went on to compete at the 2013 World Boxing Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan in October where he defeated Adilson Justino of Angola and Branimir Stankovic of Serbia but lost to Ermek Sakenov of Kyrgyzstan in the third round.

In 2014, Rakhimov won a gold medal at the Tajikistan National Championships in Khujand in May, and went on to win a bronze medal at the 2014 World University Boxing Championships in Yakutsk, Russia in September.

In 2015, Rakhimov won a gold medal at the 2015 Tajikistan National Championship in Dushanbe in March.

Professional career
Shavkat Rakhimov made his professional debut in 2015 at the age of 21. He won the WBO Inter-Continental Youth super featherweight title in 2016, and by mid 2017 had amassed a record of 10 wins with all but two by stoppage.

On 20 June 2017, it was announced that Rakhimov would face off against David Saucedo on 9 September in Chelyabinsk, Russia for the vacant IBO world title, last held by Malcolm Klassen who was stripped in May due to inactivity. However, on 18 August, RCC Boxing announced that Saucedo had pulled out of the fight notifying the promoter that he would be unable to make the weight. He was replaced by Emanuel Lopez. On 9 September, Rakhimov defeated Emanuel Lopez by unanimous decision to win the IBO super featherweight title.

On 10 February 2018, Rakhimov defeated former IBF and IBO champion Malcolm Klassen to retain the IBO super featherweight title. He won the bout by technical knockout in the eighth round.

On 19 August, Rakhimov defended his title against Mexican boxer Robinson Castellanos, who had a recent victory over Yuriorkis Gamboa and had previously challenged for the WBA (Super) and interim WBC titles in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Rakhimov won the bout by technical knockout at 1:36 of the second round.

On 23 March 2019, Rakhimov defeated South African boxer Rofhiwa Maemu by knockout in the fourth round. Maemu suffered two knockdowns in the round after which he walked back to his corner signaling an end to the fight.