UFC welterweight prospect Ian Harry has responded to Shavkat Rakhmonov, who recently hinted that he dominated the Irishman during sparring sessions.
"I don't know what he's talking about. I can only remember one incident. We had a sparring session before a tournament where we were both fighting, him against Jeff Neal and me against Keenan Song. Coach Henry Hooft came up to us and said, 'I realize you're both competitors, you're both expected to fight, you're both on the same team, so work easy. I want you to just touch each other, work on speed, be active.' Being good training partners, we started to work easily and then I caught him with a kick to the body. He took a step back, looked at me, and then BOOM, charged me with a hand right in the damn ribs. I was like, 'ah you dirty motherf***er, well hold on,' but Henry told us, 'Hey, you two, stop it right now.' It was a fun game moment, nothing more."
