Lofty Ambitions
A fighter’s ego, for better or for worse, plays an important part in how his career develops. In order to rise to the top of the combat sports food chain, one must have an unshakeable self belief coupled with the technical ability to overcome the best of the rest.
Over the years we have seen many proclaim themselves to be the greatest, while only a select few ever realise their ambition of achieving that status. More often than not those affirmations of confidence have turned out to be delusions of grandeur, but on very rare occasions they can turn out to be prophetic.
A brash young Irishman by the name of Conor McGregor broke into the UFC back in 2013 and made it loud and clear to the watching world that he was “here to take over”. He ruffled feathers, upset the establihment and most importantly, followed through on his promise to topple Jose Aldo and become the UFC featherweight champion.
“The Notorious” was a trailblazer who not only became the biggest superstar in the history of the sport, he also inspired a generation of future young athletes to attempt to follow in his footsteps.
MMA gyms across his native Ireland filled with fresh young faces, all of whom (attempting to mimic their hero) shouted from the rooftops about their plans to become a future world champion.
One of those young men who first stepped onto the mats after being inspired by McGregor’s success will fight Shavkat Rakhmonov (18-0), the so-called ‘Boogeyman’ of the UFC’s 170lb divsion this Saturday night at UFC 310 with the aim of becoming the next challenger to Belal Muhammad’s welterweight crown.
The Future Is Now
Ian Machado Garry, (15-0), a native of Portmarnock on the northside of Dublin, Ireland, didn’t hesistate for a second when news emerged that Rakhmonov’s title shot in this weekend’s original main event had fallen through.
“The Future” stepped up after fellow ranked contenders shied away from the opportunity to take on “Nomad” on a couple of weeks’ notice, and on Saturday the 27-year-old will put his own undefeated record on the line in a bid to be the one to end Rakhmonov’s.
Garry had originally signed to fight Joaquin Buckley on Decemeber 14th in Tampa Bay, after failing in his quest to secure a fight against anyone above him in the welterweight rankings.
“I’ve been calling out Colby (Covington), I’ve been calling out Shavkat, I’ve been calling out (Kamaru) Usman,” he said while speaking to the media following his victory over Michael “Venom” Page at UFC 303 earlier this year, “Give me anyone that’s ranked higher than me and let me get my hand raised in the most fabulous style I possibly can.”
“There are some big names, [and] there’s some cool matchups” he continued. “You know there’s Shavkat, 18-0, undefeated and I’d love to get my hands on him. I’ve trained with him, I have nothing but respect for the guy, but I want to be the first guy to take his 0 and I know that I can do it.”
That opportunity has finally landed at his feet and it’s time for Ian Machado Garry to prove to the MMA world that he can back up his promises. The former Cage Warriors welterweight champion goes into UFC 310 as an underdog in the bookmaker’s eyes, likely due to the way that Rakhmonov has been dispatching of anyone the UFC puts in front front of him.
While both men have competed against a similar level of opposition throughout their respective UFC runs (they share a pair of mutual dance partners in Neil Magny and Geoff Neal), Garry has had to rely on the judges scorecards in five of his eight fights inside the promotion to date while Rakhmonov has put away every single opponent he has faced through his entire professional career.
“He’s Going To Be Left Speechless”
The re-emergence this week of some training footage showing the pair sparring at Kill Cliff FC a few years back has kickstarted an interesting back-and-forth between the fighters. Rakhmonov addressed the issue during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show earlier this week and accused Garry and his wife of being disingenous.
“At the time his wife asked me if she can film the footage of his sparring and I accepted it,’ Rakhmonov told Helwani. “But they didn’t ask me if they can release it or not. And I wonder why they didn’t release the other part of the sparring… [We would have seen] how Ian Garry taps.”
Garry seemed unimpressed with Rakhmonov’s boasting, and in an interview with Talksport this week the Irishman was quick to point out that training and competition are two entirely different situations. “Look” said Garry, “if he’s hanging onto something like that from training two or three years ago, guess what; do it on Saturday night, do it underneath the bright lights, do it when it matters most – let’s see if you can do it.
“I promise you right now that he is not ready for the speed and the beauty – he’s going to look at me like ‘This guy is beautiful, what do I do?!’ – he’s going to be left speechless.”
“Yes, [but] it’s training” he pressed to confirm if the incident had actually occured as Rakhmonov had described it. “Dude, if I told you about all the people who I have absolutely burned and choked in training, you would say that I’m the best fighter in the world already. But the truth is that we’re all learning and practicing in training”.
Garry has spent a sizeable portion of the last eighteen months in Brazil working closely with Charles Oliveira and Demian Maia, two of the greatest grapplers to ever set foot inside the Octagon. Could this have been a decision taken after feeling the full force of Shavkat Rakhmonov in the training room?
Even during his early days in the UFC, Garry repeatedly pointed to the Khazak as a possible future rival for the welterweight belt and it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that the brief interactions the pair shared on the mats may have steered him toward his new home at Chute Boxe Diego Lima.
Having always prided himself on being a crebral fighter and travelling the world to seek out new sources of knowledge and growth on a professional level, the time has finally arrived for Ian Machado Garry to show the world that the perceived arrogance has always been grounded in extreme confidence, and that he is, as he has told us all along, ‘The Future’ of mixed martial arts.
