Last Saturday at UFC 310, Ian Machado Garry and Shavkat Rakhmonov broke the UFC record for highest combined record between opponents when they fought for the number one contender at welterweight.
Shavkat Rakhmonov was originally scheduled to fight for the undisputed welterweight title against Belal Muhammad, but after breaking his toe and subsequently suffering a bone infection, Muhammad withdrew.
With that, fellow undefeated phenom, Ian Machado Garry, threw his name in the hat to take on his former training partner, Rakhmonov, to battle for the number one contendership.
Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images
Dana White reacts to the Ian Machado Garry vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov fight
Coming into the fight, the anticipation between the two 170 pounders had become extremely palpable, despite remaining respectful from the start.
Rakhmonov started the UFC 310 fight week by claiming he submitted Machado Garry during training sessions at Kill Cliff, which the Irishman admitted was true.
Despite this, 'The Future' and 'The Nomad' had an extremely fiery confrontation at the ceremonial weigh-in a day prior to their fight, which Garry ended by claiming he would finish the Kazakh.
The fight went as a large majority of the fanbase expected it to, as Rakhmonov seemingly had a major advantage over Machado Garry, despite Garry's continued work with the likes of Charles Oliveira at Chute Box in Brazil.
However, the 27-year-old impressed fans with his defensive struggles and grappling, while Rakhmonov managed just two of ten takedown attempts, and at one point Machado Garry even came extremely close to securing a victory with a rear-naked choke.
'The Nomad' went on to take the unanimous decision, with all three judges giving him the extremely narrow 48-47 win.
UFC CEO, Dana White, admitted that sometimes fights don't go the way you expect, but on this occasion, because of the stakes, he wasn't too surprised at how it went.
“15-0 and 18-0, what that means is you have two really great fighters with a lot on the line, there's a title shot on the line and you saw a lot of great things from both guys in that fight” , White admitted this at the post-fight press conference.
Ian Machado Garry disputes his decision loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov
Although the UFC boss complimented both fighters and was happy with both their performances, the Irishman was a bit more critical.
After the first loss of his career, Machado Garry admitted he didn't feel like he lost the fight and has questioned the judges' scorecards.
“I am humble in both wins and losses and always have been, and I don't feel like I lost today. My hand might not have been raised, but I came out and I fought a giant, I came out and I fought the ogre and I showed he's fucking human,” Garry began explaining during his post-season press conference the fight.
“I went there on three weeks notice and I saved this event, I saved this card against the scariest guy in the division and I went there and almost quit everything… I showed that I can hang with the best in the division and I proved tonight that I can absolutely be a champion.
“He won by opinion, and that's okay, I can live with that and I'm very happy with my performance tonight,” the Irishman continued.
The co-main event isn't the only fight that was rated controversial on the scorecards, as the heavyweight fight between Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov led to Dana White having a meeting with the commissioners.
Related posts
Comments