Javid Basharat will be back in action at UFC Vegas 67. The undefeated Afghan has been matched with Mateus Mendonça in a bantamweight bout at the Apex Centre on January 14th.
Basharat (13-0) made a very good start to his UFC career in 2022. He signed for the promotion after impressing on Dana White’s Contender Series, stopping an Israeli opponent who had called him a terrorist at the weigh ins.
He made his UFC debut in March and earned a unanimous decision win over Trevin Jones. At UFC Vegas 60 he faced Tony Gravely and the outcome was identical with the Afghan again getting the nod from the judges.
Still undefeated!!@JavidBasharat improves to 12-0 in his UFC debut 👏
[ #UFCVegas50 | Prelims are LIVE on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/EFBYDGgdVg
— UFC (@ufc) March 12, 2022
Family affair
Since then he has been joined on the roster by his brother Farid Basharat. He is a flyweight who also signed for the UFC after impressing on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Both brothers will be in action in early 2023. Farid Basharat faces Da’Mon Blackshear at UFC 285 which is set for March, just two weeks after his Javid Basharat’s fight.
At UFC Vegas 67 he faces an opponent who is also undefeated and earned his opportunity after winning a fight on Dana White’s Contender Series. Mendonça (10-0). He fights out of the legendary Chute Box gym and will be competing in the octagon for the first time.
“The sky is the limit. I just turned 27.”@JavidBasharat knows he has it all ahead of him after a clinical decision victory in which he showed his all-around game.
See every result from #UFCVegas60 here ⬇️: https://t.co/IazlmeYTCn
— UFC News (@UFCNews) September 17, 2022
Best of the rest
The event will be headlined by a middleweight fight between Kelvin Gastelum (17-8) and Nassourdine Imavov (12-3). The fight was originally scheduled to take place in April but the French fighter couldn’t secure a visa in time.
Gastelum is a former middleweight title challenger. But the 31 year old is on a poor run of form and has lost five out of his last six fights with all but one of those bouts going the distance.
By contrast Imavov has won his last three. He is currently ranked #12 and is on an upwards trajectory #13 and appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
UFC Vegas 67, Las Vegas, January 14th
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov (Middleweight)
Jimmy Flick vs. Charles Johnson (Flyweight)
Allan Nascimento vs. Carlos Hernandez (Flyweight)
Geoff Neal vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov (Welterweight)
Ketlen Vieira vs. Raquel Pennington (Bantamweight)
Jarno Errens vs. David Onama (Featherweight)
Omar Morales vs. Mateusz Rębecki (Lightweight)
Daniel Argueta vs. Isaac Dulgarian (Featherweight)
Punahele Soriano vs. Roman Kopylov (Middleweight)
Dan Ige vs. Damon Jackson (Featherweight)
Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Raoni Barcelos (Bantamweight)
Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Claudio Ribeiro (Middleweight)
Javid Basharat vs. Mateus Mendonça (Bantamweight)
