A detailed analysis of Shavkat Rakhmonov's fight with Ian Garry reveals several key strengths. Rakhmonov showed significant improvement at mid-range compared to his fight with Neil, consistently landing strong single strikes including jabs, overhand rights, left hooks, and spinning backfists. He dominated the clinch for the first four rounds, controlling Garry with deep underhooks. Rakhmonov became the only UFC fighter to take Garry down in the center of the octagon, accomplishing this twice and landing strikes from top position. However, concerns were raised about Rakhmonov's low activity at long range, where he threw very few kicks and surrendered considerable scoring opportunities to Garry's leg attacks. The analyst scored the fight close overall but gave Rakhmonov the edge due to his control of the most important distances (mid-range striking and grappling), despite Garry accumulating many points with low kicks. The fifth round saw Rakhmonov's only major error when attempting a hasty takedown.
