The drama for UFC 310 has just taken an interesting turn! It’s a well-known fact that Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Garry were once teammates at the Kill Cliff FC gym. The duo have sparred together before, and social media has been booming with the videos. But when ‘The Future’ and his wife, Layla Machado, decided to share a sparring video on social media, he missed out on one key aspect. 

With UFC 310 right around the corner, Rakhmonov appeared in Ariel Helwani’s talk show, The MMA Hour. Therein, he revealed, “One time, you know, his wife asked me if she can film the footage of the sparring and I accepted it. But they didn’t ask me if they can release it or no. And I wonder why they didn’t release the other part of the sparring.” 

No doubt, the famed MMA reporter was reeled in and wanted to know about the other part of the sparring video. Well, had the Irishman revealed the complete video, the world would have known the strength ‘Nomad’ possesses in his grappling. Rakhmonov replied, “How Ian Garry taps.” It succeeded in extracting a “wow” from Helwani. The Kazakh fighter continued, “Yeah, it was a submission choke.”

But that does not matter to ‘Nomad.’ He is still expecting the best version of Garry coming in with a tough challenge. Shavkat said, “What’s most important for me is the win. Sparring is sparring, fighting is different. Ian Garry is a very tough opponent who is a good tactician, who comes in with a good game plan. So for me, it doesn’t matter, submission or stoppage. For me what’s most important is to win.”

UFC veteran Chael Sonnen added to this discussion with a rather interesting take. ‘The Bad Guy’ tried to theorize why Garry left Kill Cliff when he had world-class teammates to train alongside. It may have had something to do with instances like the one Rakhmonov revealed. “At 24 years old, completely undefeated, you’re the one controlling the headlines. But in this room, you’re No. 5 – just within the weight class. There’s five guys in this practice room, in your weight class, that can beat you and do it on a daily basis,” Sonnen said on YouTube.

“‘But ‘The promoters want to see you for some reason. Your placement on the card is higher than our placement on the card. The amount of headlines that you garner, your social media and your followers, and the people that believe you are the man – when the four of us know you’re not.’ And just by example, is that why Ian left?” he asked.

Incidentally, Kill Cliff is not the first gym Garry has left. He was also reportedly kicked out of the Birmingham-based Team Renegade, where Leon Edwards trains. According to ‘Rocky,’ the reason was, “Basically, the gym decided that he just wasn’t fitting for the gym. We’re just too different – the culture in our gym, he’s like a talker, a social media guy, brings his cameras everywhere. He’s late to sessions. It’s like two different cultures to what we have in our gym. The guys decided, not because of me.”

Now, this paints an interesting picture. Why would Garry and his team be selective with the footage they release? Obviously, they would want their fighter looking like the better one. But is it a healthy practice to film these if it ends up getting you kicked out of world-class gyms?

Be that as it may, would Shavkat Rakhmonov deploy a similar strategy against Ian Garry on the 8th of December? It might prove a lot harder this time, since Garry is now training at Chute Box, alongside Charles Oliveira, and we saw the improvements to his grappling game in the bout against Michael ‘Venom’ Page. But let’s find out the perspective of someone who has trained with both these welterweights. 

Judging by sparring experience UFC star chooses his favorite for Ian Garry vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov

Vicente Luque is someone who has trained with both Garry and Rakhmonov. With the hype around the undefeated Kazakh finisher rising high, the Brazilian pointed out that ‘Nomad’ stood true to the hype train. During a conversation with Mike Perry on the Overdogs podcast, he said, “He’s very good all around, he strikes very well, and he has good conditioning, good grappling, and good wrestling. And I think he could definitely be a champion in the division.”

‘The Silent Assassin’ revealed that he trained with Garry long before their fight at UFC 296 was scheduled. Although he never really traded blows with the Irishman in the Octagon, Luque seemed to have a strong opinion of Garry too. He said, “When we go to Shavkat and Ian, I’ve trained with Ian over two years ago… I’m sure that he has changed, he has gotten better, I think. But the edge he has is striking, but not by much.” But with grappling, Rakhmonov was the absolute favorite. He continued, “And then grappling and wrestling for me, Shavkat is better. So I’m gonna give, you know, Shavkat favorite on that fight.”

Nevertheless, ‘Nomad’ knows pretty well that Garry is one of the finest tacticians in the welterweight division. With his nick for the perfect game plan in mind, Rakhmonov claimed that he would try his best to get a win. It didn’t matter to him if he got the win by stoppage or submission. All he wants to do now is move on to the title shot.

Do you think Rakhmonov can repeat the events of the sparring session at UFC 310? Let us know if you have any predictions for Rakhmonov vs. Garry in the comments down below.