Renowned coach Firas Zahabi believes Shavkat
Rakhmonov won’t lose his perfect record against fellow
undefeated contender Ian
Garry.
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Rakhmonov and Garry will trade leather at UFC 310
on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The bout will see
one of the undefeated welterweights lose their perfect record. And
Zahabi doesn’t think it’ll be Rakhmonov, at least for now.
Zahabi has been impressed with Rakhmonov for a while now,
acknowledging the Kazakh as the enigma that he is. Zahabi recently
praised Rakhmonov’s toughness yet again, which he believes will be
too much for Garry. While Zahabi has seen lapses in Rakhmonov’s
defense, he believes “Nomad” will make up for it with sheer
grit.
“I think Shavkat’s gonna beat [Ian Garry]. After watching his
fights it’s kind of obvious,” the
Tristar Gym coach said on YouTube. “He has a relentless
pressure, the man is an animal. He doesn’t have the best defense,
but when he gets hit, he moves forward. Yes, I’ve seen him even get
dropped. He gets up like a zombie and walks forward. He has an
incredible robustness and resilience. Now, his defense is good;
it’s just not great. He gets hit, he gets tagged, he gets pushed
around, he gets even taken down. He bounces back up and marches
forward. His relentless pressure, I think it’s gonna be way too
much for [Garry].”
However, Zahabi also believes that the flaws in Rakhmonov’s defense
will cost him his undefeated record someday.
“He takes it, man. He’s so tough. He does get hit… he doesn’t have
the best defense,” Zahabi said. “One day it’s gonna catch up to
him. One day we’re gonna maybe watch Shavkat get stopped or really
badly hurt or lose a fight. I just don’t think it’s this one. I
just don’t think it’s Ian
Garry.”
Rakhmonov has finished all eighteen of his career wins so far,
which includes six UFC outings. Meanwhile, Garry has finished three
of his eight UFC wins and has eight total stoppages in 15
victories.