Ian Machado Garry reveals what happened during training sessions with Shavkat Rakhmonov

Ian Machado Garry wants to put things right with Shavkat Rakhmonov.

This past Saturday, Garry earned his eighth consecutive UFC victory, taking a unanimous decision over Michael Page on the main card of UFC 303. The win moved Garry to 15-0 in his MMA career, and afterward, “The Future” threw out a potential matchup with fellow undefeated contender and former training partner Rakhmonov as his next possible fight. Speaking of The MMA hour On Monday, Garry explained what he likes about the competition.

“I trained with Shavkat,” Garry said. “I have nothing but respect for Shavkat and everything he’s done. For someone to be 18-0 and have 18 finishes is pretty remarkable. What I don’t want is for him to fight someone else and lose that 0. I want to be the guy that if someone has to take it, let it be me. That’s the challenge I see.

“When I look at Shavkat, he’s by far the most dangerous guy in the entire division right now, outside of, with all due respect, the champion. But he’s the most feared guy right now — 18-0, 18 finishes. We haven’t seen anyone who’s given (him) much trouble. Geoff Neal and him had a great fight in December. But the thing is, that’s the opponent I want to look at. That’s the excitement I’m ready for, fights like him. That build, that skill set — where is he going to try to beat me? Is he going to try to beat me on the feet or is he going to try to out-wrestle me? If that’s the case, I’ve got to get better in both areas because I want to beat him in both areas.

“These are the fights that excite me, and to beat someone like Shavkat and take his zero, that excites me. It gets me excited.”

Rakhmonov seems to be willing. After Garry’s call, Rakhmonov tweeted a response, suggesting that he was bossing Garry around in their training sessions and wanted to remind Garry of that. But Garry says that didn’t really happen.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Garry said. “There was one. There was one I remember. We were tippy-tapping. We had a fight on the same night. It was when he was fighting Geoff Neal and I was fighting Kenan Song, and (Kill Cliff FC coach) Henri Hooft came up to me and said, ‘I understand you two are competitors, you’ve both got a fight, you’re both on the same team, go f*cking light. I want you to just touch each other, stay active, watch each other, and stuff like that.’

“We were sitting there and we were playing around, moving around, being good training partners, and I threw a right body kick at him and caught it, and he stepped back and looked at me and did BOOM (punching motion) to the f*cking rib. I was like, ‘You dirty little cunt! (Smiling.) You son of a bitch, you just took the breath out of my rib.’ I was like, ‘Okay, come on,’ but Henri was like, ‘Stop it. Stop f*cking like that, you two.’ It was playful, it was fun, but that’s about it.”

On top of this story, Garry also acknowledged that Rakhmonov was the better of him during their wrestling sessions together; however, Garry says that was over a year ago and things are different now. Furthermore, Garry believes that he has his own advantages as well, which makes the fight so interesting.

“When it comes to punching, I’m faster than him, I’m more technical than him, I’m more talented than him,” Garry said. “Is he great? Is he fearless? Absolutely. But I know for sure that if this fight is on the feet, I’m the one with the advantage.

“As for grappling? He definitely had the grappling advantage over me when we trained. He was a much better grappler. I say ‘was’ because I did most of my work in Brazil, focusing on becoming a much better grappler.

“So the fight for me is exciting, interesting. I know what he’s good at, he knows what I’m good at — let’s go out there and have some fun and put on a show for the fans. It’s not often you see undefeated versus undefeated at this high level in the division. The only way I think it gets better is if he’s the world champion and I can take his zero when he has the belt.”

Whether or not the fight happens remains to be seen. Rakhmonov appears to be next in line for a title shot against the winner of the upcoming rematch between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad at UFC 304. But if for some reason that doesn’t happen, Garry says a fight between the two would be a perfect No. 1 contender.

“I think it has to be,” Garry said. “I’d like to have two more fights before I fight for the belt, but if the opportunity to fight Shavkat is there, if the opportunity to go out there and get that 0, finish him, dominate him, get my hand up in any way, I think it has to be a No. 1 contender spot. I think it has to be the winner of that fight who fights for the belt next.”