UFC 310: Shavkat Rakhmonov Wins, But Ian Machado Garry’s Stock Just Went Higher

Shavkat Rakhmonov is once again set for a crack at the UFC welterweight title, but he came far closer to losing that opportunity to Ian Machado Garry than most fight fans expected.

Kazakhstan’s Rakhmonov, 30, was originally set to challenge welterweight champ Belal Muhammad for the title in the main event of Saturday’s UFC 310 card in Las Vegas. When Muhammad was forced out of the fight with a serious infection in his toe, however, Rakhmonov accepted a short-notice fight with his fellow contender and former training partner Ian Machado Garry.

The booking was an immediate hit among fans, as Rakhmonov would enter the cage with an 18-0 record — and a stunning 100 percent finishing rate — while Ireland’s Garry was also undefeated, at 15-0. Still, the widespread expectation was that Rakhmonov would win handily — probably by way of stoppage.

That’s not the way it happened. Instead, the Rakhmonov finally lost hold of his flawless finishing rate, settling for a closely contested unanimous decision.

“Ian Garry is a great opponent and it showed in the fight,” the soft-spoken Kazakh said in his post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan. “I’m glad I won. Thanks for supporting me.”

The fight got off to a fairly slow start.

In a somewhat surprising turn, Rakhmonov relied heavily on his clinch game in the early going, racking up more than three minutes of control time against the cage by the end of the first round. He opened up a bit more in rounds two and three — as did Garry — but he still spent much of those 10 minutes pressing his opponent into the chainlink.

Rakhmonov’s clinch attack was so relentless that the back of the Garry’s shorts ripped open. It was something we’d never seen in the Octagon before and forced the Irishman to make a wardrobe change between the third and fourth rounds.

“That means they’re spending way too much time on that Octagon side,” joked former two-division champ turned color commentator Daniel Cormier.

Changing shorts seemed to wake Garry up.

Shavkat finally scored his first takedown of the fight in round four — he succeeded on just two of 10 attempts overall — but the Irishman significantly cranked up the offense through the championship rounds. His biggest moment came in the fifth round when he came very close to finishing his foe with a rear-naked choke — close enough that Rogan and Cormier were pushed into a frenzy of excitement.

“That was close,” DC said, only to have Rogan repeat the same sentence seconds later.

Rakhmonov, of course, survived the submission attempt, but as his decision victory was announced by Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer, he looked more human than ever before thank to Garry’s impressive effort.

While it was not the blowout many fans expected, Rakhmonov’s UFC 310 win reasserted him as the top contender for Muhammad’s title, and any lingering doubt that he is next in line disappeared when the champion entered the cage for a face-off with the unbeaten Kazakh.

“I’m excited,” the criminally underrated Muhammad said as the fans in the T-Mobile arena booed, and bright blue Kazakh flags waved in the bleachers. “I hear the crowd booing, those boos are gonna turn to tears.”

“No more injuries,” Rakhmonov responded, referencing the infection that caused their planned UFC 310 fight to fall apart. “We’ll find out who’s better.”

It remains to be seen when Muhammad and Rakhmonov will meet in the cage, however, the champion has been cleared to compete, so it should be sometime in the first half of the new year. Whenever it happens, it’s going to be one of the most anticipated fights on the calendar.

After his rousing performance against Rakhmonov, Garry’s next fight should be almost as anticipated as the title fight. While he will undoubtedly spend the next few weeks mourning the loss of his undefeated record, he proved himself as a truly elite welterweight at UFC 310, and it would not be remotely surprising to see him fighting for the belt — and perhaps even rematching Rakhmonov — sometime in the next few years.

It will take a few more wins to make it happen, but after the performance he put forth in Las Vegas, it’s hard to imagine many welterweights giving him much of a challenge.