“The Future” isn’t buying his opponent’s scary hype.
Surging Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contender Ian Garry returns to action in a Welterweight title eliminator this weekend (Sat., Dec. 7, 2024) in the co-main event of UFC 310 against No. 1 contender Shavkat Rakhmonov, which will go down inside T-Mobile Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ever since Rakhmonov arrived in the UFC, he has been flooded with hype and has been deemed the division’s “Boogeyman.” But it also makes sense, as he has been absolutely sensational, dispatching every opponent violently before the final round ends.
Today (Wed., Dec. 4, 2024) at UFC 310 media day (watch here), his opponent, Garry, dismissed Rakhmonov as the division’s “Boogeyman” while comparing each other’s resumes.
“I respect his 18-0; it’s phenomenal, but I just don’t see it being as crazy as everyone makes it out to be,” Garry said. “I mean, when you look at it: He’s 6-0 in the UFC, I’m 8-0 in the UFC. I’ve got more knockouts in the UFC. I have more wins in the UFC. I have more wins over ranked opponents in the UFC. And you can absolutely make the case that the eight people I have fought are better than the six people he’s fought, but I don’t get the credit that he gets, and that’s okay. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I’m gonna earn it on Saturday night when I beat him…Geoff Neal was arguably winning the fight, cracked him a lot, hurt him, and was very lucky to come away with a finish in that fight.”
“His opponents haven’t been as high a level in totality as mine, I believe,” Garry continued. Obviously, we share two opponents…When you watch me versus Geoff Neal, and you watch Shavkat versus Geoff Neal, who did it better? Sure, he got a finish, but who had a cleaner performance? Me. When you watch me vs. Neil Magny, a 30-24? Dude, that was domination. So I do them clean. I know what I’m doing. I’m very, very talented.”
While the Irish fighter makes good points about his resume, it all comes down to whether someone values finishes over clean, unanimous decision wins.
Also, Garry might have three knockouts inside the Octagon compared to Rakhmonov’s one…the Kazakh has five submissions, and Garry has zero.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 310 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 310: “Pantoja vs. Asakura” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.