Detailed analysis shows Rakhmonov dominated Garry on middle and close range

A detailed rewatching and analysis of Shavkat Rakhmonov's fight with Ian Garry reveals the Kazakh fighter's strengths across multiple areas. Rakhmonov showed significant progress at middle range compared to his Neal fight, landing strong single strikes consistently including jabs, overhand rights, left hooks, and spinning backfists. He dominated the clinch in the first four rounds, controlling Garry with deep underhooks and taking his back, while Garry struggled to escape or hold dominant clinch positions. Rakhmonov became the only UFC fighter to score takedowns on Garry in the center of the cage, accomplishing this twice and landing ground strikes from top position. The analyst scored the middle range 15.75 to 10.25 for Rakhmonov and close range 18.5 to 11.7, though Garry dominated long range 19.5 to 1.75 with kicks. The main concern identified was Rakhmonov's low activity at long range, where he threw very few kicks, and his single major mistake came in round five when he rushed a takedown attempt and gave up position.