Ian Garry 'Done' With Colby Covington, Focused on Shavkat Rakhmonov Next

Ian Garry has moved on from a potential matchup against Colby Covington and is eyeing Shavkat Rakhmonov next.

Garry scored a unanimous decision win over Michael Page at UFC 303 last weekend. UFC president Dana White disagreed with the result, saying the fight should have been scored a draw . Garry believes a better argument could be made for a clean sweep of the scorecards in his favor. “The Future” noted during an appearance on "The MMA Hour” that while Page had his moments in the second round, he clearly won the first and final rounds.

“There is more of a case to say I won all three rounds than there is to say it was a draw,” Garry said. “That’s the way I look at it. First round, dominated. There’s no argument in the world arguing that. Third round, it’s pretty obvious I won… So, the first and third are clearly mine. The second round is the one that you can debate. I will lean and give it towards ‘MVP’ as a competitor, as someone who was in the fight. I felt like I could have won the second, but even I was leaning towards ‘MVP’ in that second round…So I can understand how you’d give him the second but there’s absolutely no basis to sit here and say it was f—ing draw. There’s more of an argument to say I won all three rounds.”

Garry has been calling out Covington since “Chaos” went after the Irishman and his wife with his trash talk. However, Garry changed track and called out Rakhmonov after his UFC 303 win over “Venom.” Doubling down on his callout of Rakhmonov, Garry explained that he has moved past Covington.

“I’m done with Colby. I’m done with him, he’s in the rearview mirror,” Garry said. “I think he’s running scared, he’s toxic and I’d much rather focus on someone like a Shavkat. Someone who’s going to show up and bring so much to the table.”

Garry had repeatedly accused Covington of ducking him, even claiming to have signed his part of an alleged offer from the UFC. However, White recently dismissed Garry’s claims, stating Covington never shies away from a fight.

Meanwhile, Rakhmonov responded to Garry’s callout by offering to remind him what happened during their sparring sessions.



Asked about Rakhmonov’s comments, Garry recalled a stray instance when the undefeated Kazakh took his wind out with a body shot despite coach Henri Hooft’s instructions to go easy. Outside of that, Garry claims to be faster, more technical and more talented than Rakhmonov as a striker. While Garry admits that Rakhmonov had the grappling advantage over him when they last trained, the Irishman notes that he has since made significant developments in his ground game at Chute Boxe Diego Lima in Brazil.

“When it comes to striking, I’m faster than him, I’m more technical than him, I’m more talented than him,” Garry said. “Is he amazing, is he fearless? Absolutely. But I know for a fact that this fight’s on the feet, I’m the one with the advantage. When it comes to grappling, he absolutely had the grappling advantage over me when we trained. He was a far superior grappler. I say ‘was.’ I have been doing a majority of work in Brazil focusing on becoming a far superior grappler.”

Rakhmonov has finished all 18 of his career outings so far, including six the UFC, putting him on the cusp of a title shot.