Ian Machado Garry says that his business has not concluded with Shavkat Rakhmonov.
The Kazakh fighter handed Garry the first defeat of his professional career earlier this month at UFC 310 in Las Vegas, outpointing the Irishman in a tense five-round affair inside the T-Mobile Arena. Rakhmonov, who up to this point had finished each of his previous 18 opponents, had to rely on the judges’ scorecards this time around — and it could have been worse for him had he succumbed to a late rear-naked choke applied by Garry in the fight’s final moments.
And in comments courtesy of SpacePortSweden, Garry says that his competitive rivalry with Rakhmonov will extend for a few more chapters.
“I believe we’re going to end up having a trilogy,” he said. “We might even see each other three more times. So would it be somewhat satisfactory to take Shavkat’s belts (if he beats Belal) and take his zero? Absolutely. But even if I get that revenge, mine still stays.
“So while this might be a loss on my record, in my heart and my soul it feels like a win. I can learn a lot from that fight about how I can be better going forward and have complete and utter dominance over the division for years to come, until I decide to hang it up and give my belts away.”
Furthermore, Garry added that his 25-minute fight with Rakhmonov was a close affair that could have gone in his direction on another day.
“When you look at the statistics from the fight, Shavkat threw 102 strikes total, landed 65. I landed 102 out of 146. Every stat you look at, is in my favour,” Garry explained.
“There was only one person in that fight who looked like he was going to finish the fight multiple times. I had a ninja choke on. I had a guillotine on. I had my rear naked choke on. These are all little things that I just need to just tweak.”
