LAS VEGAS – Losing the zero on his record didn’t change the way Ian Machado Garry looks at his career and his upside in the UFC, not one bit.
The Irish welterweight contender entered Saturday’s UFC 310 co-main event against Shavkat Rakhmonov with undefeated status and left the event without it, as he came up short in a unanimous decision. Yet, despite the defeat to Rakhmonov (19-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), Machado Garry (15-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) doesn’t feel like a loser, and in fact, thinks he further proved that he’s bound to become UFC welterweight champion.
“I don’t feel like I lost today,” Machado Garry told reporters at the UFC 310 post-fight press conference. “I might’ve not gotten my hand 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*cking human. I went out there on three weeks’ notice, I saved this event, I saved this card and against the scariest man in the division. I went out there and I stopped almost everything. There was no point where he looked like he was going to finish the fight, and I put him in two submissions. I took his back, and I had fun.
“I showed that I can hang with the single best in the division and proved tonight, on short notice, that I can absolutely be a champion. I can do it for five rounds and there are no holes in my game. There was nothing that man brought for me tonight. He won by opinion, and that’s ok. That’s ok. I can live with that.”
It’s unclear what’s next for Machado Garry at the moment, but it’s safe to assume that Rakhmonov will be challenging UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in 2025.
Machado Garry feels Rakhmonov is bound to win the title, which makes a potential rematch or even trilogy almost inevitable.
“I said it before the fight, I believe that he’s better than everybody else and I believe that I’m better than everyone else, and we’re going to see each other multiple times,” Machado Garry explained. “We’re going to see each other multiple times in our careers. I don’t believe that we’re going to see each other just one more time, I think it might be twice. I think he’s that good, and I know I’m that good.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
