A detailed breakdown of Shavkat Rakhmonov's fight with Ian Garry highlights the Kazakh fighter's improvements and areas of concern. Rakhmonov impressed with his progression at middle distance compared to his bout with Geoff Neal, regularly landing strong single strikes including jabs, overhand rights, and spinning backfists. He dominated the clinch for the first four rounds and became the only UFC fighter to take Garry down in the center of the octagon, accomplishing this twice. However, concerns were raised about Rakhmonov's minimal activity at long range, where he threw very few leg kicks and conceded significant points to Garry's kicking game. The analyst scored the fight roughly even on total points at 40-40, but gave Rakhmonov the overall victory due to his control of the middle and close-range exchanges, which are considered the most important distances in MMA.
