spent most of the past year fighting a battle against it but despite his best efforts, a consistent duel never took place.
While the undefeated Irish welterweight says it's a fight the UFC wanted, Garry claims Covington ducked, dodged and did just about everything to avoid him. This belief was only strengthened after he was released from prison Main event to face at and then Covington immediately replaced him in the fight against him .
“He just magically appeared out of nowhere!” Garry said during UFC 310 media day. “It just came out of nowhere, didn’t it? “Oh yeah, I'll do it!” It just shows he's a coward. It proves that he never, ever wanted to fight me.
“He's the perfect example of someone trying to stay relevant by talking about me, Shavkat, he even mentioned Charles [Oliveira] At some point, because he was getting all the media attention. He’s talking out of his ass and he’s not willing to support it.”
Even before being asked about Covington, Garry was already lashing out at fighters on the UFC roster who are offered matchups but then turn them down for some reason.
In his opinion there should be no option.
Garry believes that when the UFC comes calling with an opponent, every fighter should either accept or be sidelined until they are ready to accept the match originally offered.
“All these people talk about staying relevant, keeping some relevance in the division or maintaining their place, but people are way too picky in this sport and I think something needs to change,” Garry said. “Either you fight this guy or you don’t fight at all.
“Because it’s ridiculous that these people speak their words but don’t really support them. This weekend is proof that I said I would do it and I support it, and it’s the same with Shavkat.”
Garry, a former training partner when both trained at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, praised Rakhmonov despite some pre-fight trash talk that added a new element to their co-main event on Saturday.
Rakhmonov proudly announced this in the days before the fight during a sparring session that Garry's wife was filming. Rahkmonov begged them to release the footage to make it clear who was better at training together.
In response, Garry didn't deny what happened, but also scoffed at the suggestion that any training session, especially one that took place several years ago, had any bearing on the upcoming fight at UFC 310.
“If he wants to build on a moment of training success from two years ago and thinks I am the same fighter I was back then, then he would be sadly mistaken,” Garry said. “I don’t think he’ll get involved in something like that.
“I think he’s honest. He says that's what happened, and that's what happened. I'm not going to turn around and say that wasn't the case. But if I sit here and tell you the damn names I've beaten in sparring, it's just not relevant. It would be a completely different conversation. He has to do it Saturday night. I’m going to go out there and show him that I’m way better than he could ever imagine.”
Assuming all goes well and he is still undefeated after this weekend's match against Rakhmonov, Garry already has his sights set on a future fight against the UFC welterweight champion in 2025.
After this win, there are no more detours and Garry is happy that he can continue to focus on the opponents who actually want to fight him, rather than someone like Covington, who he promises he never would.
“He would never in a million years step into that octagon with me and face his fears,” Garry said of Covington. “Because I’m the man he fears most.”
