It’s hard to improve on perfection, but after starting his MMA career 15-0, Ian Machado Garry may have managed it — in a loss.
He stepped in on short notice at UFC 310 to face Shavkat Rakhmonov — the welterweight division’s boogeyman — with a potential title shot against Belal Muhammad on the line.
Though Garry dropped a close unanimous decision that night in Las Vegas, he may have done more in that one loss to stamp himself as a legitimate title contender than in any of his previous victories.
Garry doesn’t have his head in the clouds. It’s easy to bash the judges after a loss, but instead, he was brutally honest: if he were scoring it, he said, he’d have gone 48-47 for Rakhmonov.
That kind of self-awareness is part of what’s enabled him to keep improving, even as the opposition grows more dangerous with each outing.
Rakhmonov entered the bout 18-0 with 18 finishes, having built a larger-than-life reputation as a finisher. In defeat, Garry showed that Rakhmonov isn’t untouchable. He pulls his pants on one leg at a time like everyone else, and he hasn’t run off and left the field behind.
He’s beatable, and Garry nearly had him in the first.
“After 25 minutes of me versus Shavkat, you can only look at it and say that I’m the more dangerous fighter,” Garry said. “That’s what makes me happy. My hand might not have gotten raised. But in my soul, I did not lose.
“I know how good I am and how talented I am. It’s just a matter of time until the world knows how good I am.”
The record books don’t record moral victories, and Garry enters Saturday’s bout against Carlos Prates in Kansas City in a peculiar spot. Win, and he’s got a solid argument to fight next for the title. Lose, and he’s suddenly looking at a year to recover the lost momentum.
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Carlos Prates (R), battling Neil Magny, has won his last 10 bouts by finish.
Prates, a member of “The Fighting Nerds” — the hottest team in the sport — has won 11 straight, including four UFC finishes in four appearances. He’s beginning to look like the division’s next boogeyman.
Since he dropped a decision to Gadzhimurad Abdullaev at ONE Warriors on June 20, 2019, he’s gone 11-0 with 10 consecutive finishes. Six of those were in the first round and three have been in the second.
Prates has made fighting look as easy as Tiger Woods made golf look in the early days of this century.
Prates has never faced anyone with Garry’s all-around skillset. Just by making the UFC means that by default, one is among the greatest fighters in the world, but even some of the greats get intimidated by finish rates like Prates has put together.
Garry understands the challenge he faces, but isn’t overwhelmed by it. Woods had to sink a lot of tricky puts that made the stomach flipflop while standing over them. And having spent 25 minutes locked inside a cage with Rakhmonov just proved to Garry his intangibles are what make him different from the pack.
“I think I am just talented and different and my Fight IQ is levels above everyone else,” Garry said.
Woods stood knock-kneed over many a putt. And Garry is one of those introspective people who understands what he’s good at and where he stands to improve.
Watching the fight with Rakhmonov, he realized that for as well as he fought, he left opportunity on the table.
“For me, something I’ve been working on after that fight is getting more aggressive and being more venomous,” Garry said. “I could have beaten Shavkat that night and I could have knocked him out. I need to go out there and have more trust and know that I’m better than I think I am.”
Garry believes if he defeats Prates on Saturday, he should get the winner of the UFC 315 title bout between Muhammad versus Jack Della Maddalena next.
A win over Prates would be a statement, but the UFC doesn’t hand out title opportunities like participation trophies. Della Maddalena stepped in for Rakhmonov when he underwent surgery.
If Rakhmonov is healthy, the next shot should go to him.
And then there’s the specter of lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Makhachev is openly mulling a move to welterweight and a challenge for the belt.
He’s unlikely to do it if Muhammad wins, since they’re friends. But if Della Maddalena takes the belt at UFC 315, Makhachev will be a welterweight in short order.
And that’s OK with the outspoken Garry, who is smart enough to recognize greatness.
“Let me say this as clearly and as simply as I can: When you have the pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world — and Islam is deserving of that title — if he wants to move up and be next, then everyone in the division should say, ‘OK, yes sir. You’re next,’ ” Garry said. “That’s respect for someone who has gone out and proven it time and time again. He is someone who I have a lot of love and respect for.
“As a competitor, as an athlete and as a fighter, I think he’s phenomenal. I have nothing but respect for the man. And when you talk about him coming up to the welterweight division, oh my God! That’s an exciting match [against me], isn't it?”
Garry may yet get his shot against Makhachev. But he has to deconstruct one boogeyman at a time.
And on Saturday against a guy reeling off finishes like Paul Skenes does strikeouts, Garry has another boogeyman to face.
The white hot title spotlight will find Garry soon enough. It always finds those bold enough to chase it and gifted enough to win it. But in a division defined by chaos and killers, the only thing that matters is what happens when the cage door shuts.
Garry knows it better than anyone.
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Ian Machado Garry is 15-1 as he heads into his bout on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo., against Carlos Prates