by When injury forced UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad to forfeit his first title defense at UFC 310, Ian Machado Garry stepped in to save the day.
Even though 18-0 contender Shavkat Rakhmonov wanted and advocated for the creation of an interim title, he and Garry both settled for the next best thing: a highly anticipated clash between undefeated contenders and former training partners. The 170-pound stars will get co-main event duties this Saturday in Las Vegas.
Former UFC champion Kamaru Usman initially seemed like the most likely replacement for Muhammad at the start of the change. Garry, on the other hand, was already booked for the UFC Tampa headliner against Joaquin Buckley on December 14 after several failed attempts to secure higher-ranked opposition. Garry was never interested in Buckley, the Irishman admitted Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show,” but was more about fighting. someone when other names were not wanted.
“Initially the goal was to line up a fight with Colby Covington [for UFC Tampa]”, Garry said. “Again, it’s no secret that he ran. And then [UFC matchmakers] went down the line, and they looked at Kamaru Usman.
“Kamaru Usman’s words were literally the words I heard from the UFC: ‘Kamaru Usman wants nothing to do with you.’ As in, he runs too, again, obviously. [that would’ve been] a Shavkat-Belal [No. 1 contender] match. The other guys are injured, as far as Leon (Edwards) and [Jack Della Maddalena] not [being available] fight at the end of the year. It was again in that situation of, “Well, there’s no one above me.” I’m frustrated. I’m irritated. I want to fight guys who are going to get me closer to that world title shot. Without defending my number, I want to progress in the rankings.
“It’s irritating because here in front of me are six of the baddest men on the planet, but that’s not really the case. They’re very sensitive and very selective about who they fight.”
Speculation swirled before the initial UFC 310 main event was booked as to whether Muhammad vs. Rakhmonov would be the next welterweight title fight. In the eyes of champion Muhammad, Usman still remained an option thanks to his previous accolades, even though Usman had lost his last three fights.
Usman, 37, has raised the possibility of intervening whenever it’s mentioned on podcasts or during broadcast work for the UFC, but Garry dismisses those suggestions as nothing more than empty talk .
“Usman was never involved in the negotiations. Usman is a candidate,” Garry said. “He was mentioned about it, but this man never fought with me or Shavkat. Let’s be real about this. It’s a fact.”
Garry said he offered to serve as a backup fighter for Muhammad against Rakhmonov after the initial UFC 310 main event was finally set, but that offer was turned down by promotion officials.
In the end, everything probably worked out better than Garry had tried to plan. Usman or Covington would have been undeniably standout fights and potential wins on his record, but the short-term UFC 310 showdown against Rakhmonov is practically an interim title fight without the title.
Yet his frustrations with the divisive talk without action have reached a boiling point.
“Usman has a big chest and small balls,” Garry said. “He’s got a big chest, he looks good, he plays the part, but where it’s important between the legs, he’s a small man. That’s my point of view. He’s still worried. Him and Colby, they’re older, they’ve been through the division.
“Now they’re coming to the end of their career, they want to pick the best stylistic matchups. I guarantee it. Usman is going to try to fight Jack Della Maddalena because he saw how easily Gilbert Burns was able to take him down .So for me, if I was in Usman’s position, why would I want to fight the guy who is long, lanky and difficult to deal with. [like me]when I could fight a guy who I saw two people back to back be able to take down pretty easily? I guarantee you that Usman will try to promote the fight against ‘JDM’ because he is weak-minded.”
Garry hasn’t been shy about his thoughts on his UFC career. This launched him into volatile social media conflicts with fighters both in and out of welterweight, but none more so than with Covington.
The two still haven’t met despite Garry’s best efforts. The verbal exchanges between them have been deeply personal over the past year and, ironically, Covington is now set to take Garry’s job at UFC Tampa, opposite Buckley.
If Garry needed any further proof that Covington didn’t want to fight him, this was it.
“I screamed and screamed about fighting this man from the rafters,” Garry said. “This man made videos about me, my wife, my kids were talking about all this. All this bullshit. And here is this man avoiding me like the plague. Then the second I book [a fight] against the scariest man in the division, he said, ‘Oh, I’m going to fight in Florida.’
“It just shows that he’s a coward, that he wants nothing to do with me, and the truth is I know I’ve already beaten him. I know I’ve already beaten him mentally. He is weak. He’s an absolute coward, and I think he’s going to go in there and get screwed by Joaquin Buckley. I think Buckley is starching him.
Always confident, Garry now has a bold idea to close out 2024.
“Here’s my ideal scenario,” he explained. “I go out there on December 7 and I take out Shavkat early. I come out unscathed, unscathed. I get on the mic and I sit down, I say, ‘Hey, I could wait until next year when Belal Muhammed back, or Dana (White), Hunter (Campbell), UFC, I could walk down to Florida, and I could beat Colby Covington for 25 minutes, and I could prove how good I’m good next week because this man talks a lot, but he’s not willing to back it up.
“That would be my ideal. I would love to beat Shavkat and [then] next week’s fight, as the main event in Tampa, bury Colby Covington and leave him dead and finished in that octagon, never to be seen again.
“I want this fight just because of the amount of trash he said,” Garry added. “But I’m well aware that when I beat Shavkat on Saturday night, I’m the one booked against Belal Muhammad for the world title later in 2025. I’m close to winning that world title and Colby Covington is far, far away. , far in the rearview mirror.”
Garry knocking out the perfect Rakhmonov will obviously be much easier said than done, as none of Rakhmonov’s previous 18 opponents have come close. The feared welterweight boasts a rare 100% finishing rate.
The history between Saturday’s two co-headliners is brief but exists; Garry and Rakhmonov have trained and fought together in the past at Floriday’s Kill Cliff FC gym. From these training sessions to this week’s circumstances to Garry’s career progression, he knows deep down that his predictions will continue to come true.
“I could sit here and say, ‘Oh, I wish I had more time to prepare,’ but the truth is I work better with speed,” Garry said. “When you give me as little time as possible to work for an opponent, I’m going to go out there and do what’s natural and do what’s free for me. Go ahead, have fun and be me.
“Shavkat is phenomenal. I respect him, I respect everything he brings to this game. But I know I’m more than capable of going out there and putting him in the dirt. I know I’m totally capable of going there, finishing him, beating him and doing it beautifully.
“So for me, I can come here on December 7th at UFC 310, declare to myself and the rest of the MMA community that I am one of the greatest fighters this sport has ever seen, and I I’m going to prove it by doing it against a guy many people think is the bogeyman.”
