Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman had been rumored to be the one to step in on short notice against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 on Dec 7.
Except he’s not. Instead it’ll be Ian Machado Garry facing Rakhmonov in Las Vegas.
“I like the matchup, but we have a tendency to get excited for these Ian Garry matchups, and they don’t turn out the way we think. I’m being honest. Did I not say the same thing about the Michael ‘Venom’ Page fight,” Usman said on an episode of his podcast Pound 4 Pound with Henry Cejudo.
“That’s not a knock. It’s just the way that Ian Garry likes to fight. Ian Garry is a guy that loves space. He loves to make it look pretty.”
#7 Garry got the call up for a short notice scrap with #3 Rakhmonov likely seeing a possible title shot with a victory.
While Usman thinks it’s a good fight he’s not sure that it will translate on fight night.
“Make it look pretty to where you have a guy like Shavkat, who is kind of a seek and destroy type of guy. He wants to get into the action,” he said.
“He’s going to try to seek and destroy as he always does, and Ian Garry is going to move around to create the space, to try to find the good strikes. So, it’s a good fight on paper. I don’t know how it’s going to look on fight night.”
Garry and Rakhmonov have trained together before at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, and Usman has trained with both men. With a solid backstory, and a rumor that Rakhmonov got the best of Garry in training, Usman believes it’s a good fight. He’s just not convinced it actually will be a good one on fight night.
“It’s an intriguing fight because there’s a little bit of backstory. I think it’s going to make for a little bit more animosity as we get closer to the fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not the most electrifying fight that we’ve ever seen like we’re expecting,” he said.
We’ll see if Kamaru Usman is on point come December.
UFC 310 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec 7.
