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Michael Bisping has said Ian Machado Garry “will get finished” at UFC 310 if he can’t stop Shavkat Rakhmonov’s takedowns.
Rakhmonov, one of the most fearsome contenders in the UFC, is 18-0 with 18 stoppage wins, and the Kazakh was due to challenge welterweight champion Belal Muhammad on Saturday (7 December).
However, a bone infection ruled Muhammad out of UFC 310, leading Machado Garry to step in. The Irishman is also unbeaten (15-0, 8 stoppages) and previously trained with Rakhmonov.
Rumours have swirled over Rakhmonov’s alleged success in their sparring sessions, but Machado Garry sounds confident ahead of the No 1 contender’s fight. Yet former champion Bisping has offered the 27-year-old a warning.
“I’ve said this before, you’ve got to have a lot of respect for Ian Garry,” the Briton said on his YouTube channel. “He didn’t have to take this fight, but can he stop the takedown?
“It seems like all I’m talking about here is takedowns. Shavkat Rakhmonov, he’s very tall for the division, as is Ian Garry. They’re both 6ft 3in, and they’re both competent strikers.
“Ian Garry’s probably going to dance around the Octagon and use the exact same gameplan that he did against Geoff Neal [whom Machado Garry beat on points this year]. He’s got to keep Shavkat Rakhmonov off him.
“If he can’t stop the takedown, he will get finished. That’s no disrespect to Ian Garry. He might be able to dance around, use the reach, use the range, use the movement, be fast, be elusive, be nice and crisp, be light on your toes and be dedicated enough to not allow himself to get involved in a brawl.
“If he [gets into a brawl], Shavkat’s going to get ahold of him. If he gets ahold of him, he’s going to get him down. If he gets him down, it’s going to be lights out. Look at Shavkat’s last fight: Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, a man that’s spent his entire life stopping takedowns. But what did Shavkat do? Boxed his way into a clinch and then slowly but surely and methodically worked his way down.
“So, the story in [this] fight is simple: can Ian Garry stop the takedown? Because if he can’t, someone’s ‘O’ is going to go, and that’s probably going to be Ian Garry’s. [But] he does have a path to victory of using the range, sticking and moving; the crowd will boo, but who cares about the crowd? Winning is all that matters.”
Machado Garry beat Neal via split decision in February, before securing a unanimous-decision win over Michael “Venom” Page in June.
Rakhmonov, 30, last fought in December 2023, submitting Thompson in round two – having submitted Neal in round three last March.
In the main event of UFC 310, flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja defends his belt against UFC debutant Kai Asakura, who previously held bantamweight gold in Rizin.