This is a short notice matchup but not necessarily a short notice fight. Shavkat was already on this card and was supposed to be fighting Belal for the belt and while Ian Garry wasn't on this card, he was on the next one just a week later. I don't anticipate any issues or adjustments of a shortened fight camp.

Surprisingly I have gone back and forth on this fight. I know people all think Shavkat is this divisions savior, but reality is, his takedowns kind of suck. He barely got Wonderboy to the ground, couldn't get Geoff to the ground and has a 29% takedown accuracy overall. I do think he needs to get this to the ground to win because Ian is a very good striker who can defend some early takedowns and make Shavkat pay for bad entries. But Ian is by no means perfect either, you could argue we lost the MVP fight, he only landed 19 significant strikes in 15 minutes and needed a pair of takedowns to lock in rounds. Shavkat is obviously the more dangerous guy, he has 18 stoppage wins which is insane, but if he doesn't stop Ian, can he go for 25 minutes? Does it even matter? This is a much harder fight to pick than pop culture or the -350 odds will have you think. There's also something to be said about Ian actually taking this fight. He is meticulous with his career, so for him to accept a non-title fight against the most dangerous guy in the division, must mean that he knows he can win this fight. I actually think I am going to pick Shavkat here because he is creative on the feet and dangerous on the ground. But Ian Garry is a live dog and maybe a round over is the play.

Shavkat Rakhmonov

Shavkat Rakhmonov is seemingly special. He is one of those guys that when you watch him fight, you know he will do big things in the sport. He is 18-0 with with a 100% finish rate. He's knocking people on his feet, he's taking people down and submitting them, he's even jumping to guiltiness and getting those. He can win a fight anywhere. He is very hard to hit and also has tons of power. He has solid defensive wrestling/judo and is very active when he gets to the ground. He is coming off the submission win over Wonderboy where he went 1 for 5 in takedown attempts.

Ian Machado Garry

Ian Garry is a solid striker with crazy hand speed and fantastic footwork. He is hit-able but lands an impressive almost 6 significant strikes per minute and has solid enough takedown defense to keep most fights standing. While he does have power, it is not necessarily one punch KO power, its more timing and speed that catches his opponents off guard. Some may say he has had an easy road in the UFC but he did battle through adversity in the Song Kenan fight where he was dropped early and he did just grind his way to a win over MVP.