However, when Shavkat Rakhmonov lost out on his title fight against welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in Saturday’s UFC 310 event at T-Mobile Arena, Machado Garry stepped in to face “Nomad” in a five-round co-main event. According to Machado Garry, a potential fight with Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) was previously in discussion.

Belal Muhammad is locked in on the UFC 310 co-main event. It was the UFC Welterweight Champion who was supposed to be headlining the final pay-per-view event of the year, but a bone infection would take Muhammad out of his title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Machado Garry was referencing the fact that No 1 and No 2-ranked Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman did not step in to face No 3 Rakhmonov, nor did the division’s fourth, fifth and sixth-seeded fighters: Sean Brady, Jack Della Maddalena and Colby Covington. Meanwhile, Machado Garry is ranked seventh at 170lb.