Ian Machado Garry says past sparring sessions with his UFC 310 opponent Shavkat Rakhmonov count for nothing when the cage door closes in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Garry and Rakhmonov will place their undefeated career records on the line inside the T-Mobile Arena this weekend, with the winner set to challenge the welterweight champion Belal Muhammad sometime next year. The bout comes after the two combatants previously spent time together on the mats at Florida’s Kill Cliff FC — with Rakhmonov saying this week that in at least one of their sparring sessions he forced a tap from the Irishman.

And speaking to the media, including The Mac Life, in Sin City on Wednesday, Garry did not deny Rakhmonov’s version of events but said that anything that happened in the training room two years ago is irrelevant today.

“If he wants to latch onto a moment of success in training from two years ago, and thinks I’m the same fighter I was then, then he would be sadly mistaken,” the Dubliner, who currently trains in Brazil’s famed Chute Boxe, said. “I don’t believe he is going to be latching onto anything like that.

“I believe he is being honest,” he added. “He’s saying this happened, which it did. I’m not turning around and saying it didn’t. But if I sit here and tell you the f*cking names I’ve beaten sparring, it’s just not relevant. It would be a very different conversation. He has to do it Saturday night. I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to show him that I’m far better than he could ever imagine.”

Ahead of the most high profile (and high stakes) fight of his career to date, Garry also hit out at some of his divisional peers at welterweight for being all talk and no action when it came to accepting a short-notice fight with Kazakh finisher Rakhmonov.

“All these people talk to stay relevant, to keep some relevancy in the division or maintain their spot but people are far too selective in this sport and I think something needs to be changed about it,” he said. “It should be you fight this guy or you don’t fight at all.

“Because it’s ridiculous to have these people talk the talk but not actually back it up. This weekend is proof that I said I would do it and I’m backing it up and Shavkat’s the same.”