Ian Garry didn’t nod in the title eliminator match against UFC 310’s Shavkat Rakhmonov, but thinks he should have been the next guy for a Welterweight Gold shot.
However, when Shavkat Rakhmonov couldn’t accept his fight against 170 pound champion Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in May, the promotion instead received the opportunity by tabling Jack Della Maddalena.
“I chatted with an agent. When they told me this news, I called him when I heard it, and I was alive. It’s still today,” Garry said in an Instagram video. “I now had to do a knee rebuild and I had a fight for one candidate that’s out for a year. But it’s not my fault. I stabbed him in the knee and didn’t shake his leg. I’m not fighting for a world title.
“The world title fight was meant for Sharkat Rakmonov to face Beral Muhammad for the world title, but Shabkat seems obviously injured… Now they were doing surgery on his front f as he broke it in his final fight so he broke it in his front f, so he didn’t drive it crazy with his front f. I’m fine.
Garry entered the UFC 310 with a 15-0 career mark, including eight wins at the Octagon. The 27-year-old Irishman doesn’t think he’s been unfairly treated by his scorecard, but he believes he was very close to defeating Rakmonov.
“Do you think I won the battle against Shavkat? No. I believe that that night and to this day Shavkat won three rounds and two,” Garry said. “But I was very close to winning that fight… in my head I’m taking down away from winning that fight and I’d like to run through it one day, and I think the guy is going to hold the belt.
As the card currently has no title shots, Garry is targeting his return to action at UFC 317 on June 28th.
“I don’t care who they want to put in front of me,” he said. “I just want to fight and prove that I am the best in the world.”
