Ian Machado Garry headed into his UFC 310 bout with Shakvat Rakhmonov with a large proportion of the MMA world expecting him to be defeated. And, while those pre-fight predictions proved to be true, Garry emerged from the matchup with his confidence intact.
Garry lost his undefeated record after he was edged on the scorecards 48-47 on all three scorecards by Rakhmonov, who will move on to challenge Belal Muhammad for the undisputed welterweight title in 2025.
But, while Garry may now have a loss on his record, his performance in defeat, and the way in which the fight played out, proved to him that he’s right there with the very best in the world at 170 pounds.
“I am humble in victory and defeat, I always have been, and I do not feel like I lost today,” Garry told reporters at the UFC 310 post-fight press conference.
“My hand might not have got raised, but I came out and I fought a giant. I came out and I fought the boogeyman and I showed that he’s f–g human.
“I went out there on three weeks’ notice, I saved this event, I saved this card against the scariest man in the division and I went out there and I stopped almost everything.”
Garry did an excellent job of shutting down Rakhmonov’s wrestling attack, and stayed out of trouble on the feet as he worked his strikes from range as he took the Kazakh contender past the third round and to the scorecards for the first time in his career.
“There was no point where he looked like he finished the fight,” Garry stated.
“I put him in two submissions, I took his back, I had fun. I showed that I can hang with the single best of the division and I proved tonight, on short notice, that I can absolutely be a champion and I can do it for five rounds and there’s no holes in my game.
“There’s nothing that man brought for me tonight. He won by opinion and that’s OK. I can live with that and I’m very happy with my performance tonight.
“I went out there against the scariest man and I nearly f–g finished him. That shows that I have a championship mentality.
“(For) Twenty-five minutes, I stood in there across from him, (and) he didn’t have anything more than I have.
“I stopped every single one of his takedowns, it was clean, I made him fight tooth and nail for everything. That shows the level of talent I have and I deserve to be one of the best in the world and I deserve more respect from this now.”
Garry’s supreme self-confidence can sometimes be mistaken for arrogance, but he said that his performance against Rakhmonov just backed up his thoughts pre-fight, as he gave the Kazakh his toughest, trickiest test in the UFC to date.
“I said it before the fight, I said it to you guys before, I believe that he is better than everybody else and I believe that I am better than everybody else and we are going to see each other multiple times in our career,” he said.
“I do not believe that we are going to see each other one more time, I think it might be twice. I think he’s that good and I know I’m that good.
“I went out there against the scariest man. I’m fighting all the people (that) people don’t want to fight, and people are turning me down left, right, and center.
“I am nothing but a gamer, I have nothing but respect for everyone that I work with and everyone that I fight. I will be a champion one day.
“Today is a testimony to how hard I work (and) how talented I am. And that guy, 18-0, 18 finishes before this fight. (He) came in, didn’t look like he was that boogeyman today, did he? Did he look the same?
“I will be back and I will beat that man, I promise you that, and I am so excited for that day.”