The co-main event of UFC 310 between welterweight contenders Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry is causing a stir in the MMA world.

Although this wasn’t the original plan for Saturday night, fate brought the undefeated duo of former Kill Cliff FC teammates together after the injury-related loss of UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad threw the year-end schedule into disarray. A key sticking point heading into UFC 310 was Rakhmonov and Garry’s shared sparring history. Garry released footage of these occasions when he had advocated for a Rakhmonov duel in the past. Rakhmonov responded by telling Uncrowned that he had tricked Garry in these sessions and demanding the Irishman release the rest of the footage.

Henri Hooft was both men’s head coach at the time – Garry has since changed gyms – and he’s not the biggest fan of publicizing gym events.

In this case, he doesn’t even consider the viral footage as sparring.

“People turned (cameras) on,” Hooft said Wednesday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “Sometimes I even have to tell these guys at my gym, ‘Hey, take this off. This is not good footage. You don’t do that. You don’t have to do that.’ But it’s training, that’s what Shavkat said. This is not just movement.

“It’s nothing bad, but I prefer if people just keep it to themselves, and if you’re smart, you’ll keep the video to yourself and study it if you want. That’s what I always tell my boys.” – You can film, but only if it’s for your own purpose – the new generation is doing a lot of stuff for Instagram.

The paths to the welterweight peak were different for both Rakhmonov and Garry, despite their shared success. A true finisher through and through, Rakhmonov has stopped all 18 of his opponents without reaching the judges’ scorecard once. Garry also has 15 wins and no losses, but without the same finishing consistency – seven of his victories came in decisions.

At the highest level, something has to give, which is why the training lecture was a hot topic. Whatever the outcome, Hooft doesn’t believe it should be taken seriously.

“They are (such) senior people,” Hooft said. “Not just those two guys, but at least 10 of those senior guys at the same level. This is sparring at a high level, but with a lot of respect. What you just saw in the clip is simply movement. And sometimes, one day one gets better, one day the other.

“Of course I always prefer to think of sparring as training. For example, as a fighter, I don’t mind, I don’t mind losing a sparring round to another guy, if I train certain things, maybe defensive stuff – yeah, one. “The guy has the better hand of me, but I must train (these holes) under certain circumstances.

“You can look at it in different ways. There are people who get knocked out in the gym, there are people who get knocked out in the gym. And that’s not always a good thing, but the same applies here: sparring is sparring. Sparring is the imitation of fighting. “So yeah, I’m not a big fan of publishing all that.”

Modern technology and social media make it easier than ever for gym leaks to occur, and that’s not always a bad thing in the grand scheme of things. Hooft actually finds it beneficial, depending on the circumstances. This is the entertainment business, after all, and he’s already seen it all at this point. Whatever helps attract attention when needed can have a positive impact – especially when a fighter is missing from the Octagon.

“It’s not always the best fighters who get opportunities,” said Hooft. “It’s also the people who have a lot of followers and stuff like that. I’m not saying that about Shavkat or Ian, they deserve it. But there are a lot of talented people who don’t get opportunities just because they don’t have enough.” Because they won three fights on points, they are not attractive to the fans. But I think everyone is putting their life at risk.

Aside from the sparring debate, there wasn’t much, if any, drama between the talented welterweight contenders.

In general, a fight between two former teammates can put a coach in a strange position. The welterweight division in particular completes Kill Cliff FC’s roster with fighters galore.

But it’s nothing new for Hooft. Even though Garry has left the gym, there is no bad blood with him. The circumstances make a showdown even more possible.

“It was very, very good,” Hooft said of Garry’s training. “I mean, if you win six fights together and you’re a very young fighter, very talented, lots of energy – a good kid. Yes, he was really, really good and it was very nice to see him. All those guys – Jason.” Jackson, Logan Storley, Robbie Lawler, all those guys in the weight class training with each other – it was a great time and challenging sparring, challenging exercises, learning from each other. So I had a really good relationship with him. Corner work was always very good.

“We broke up in a normal way – you know, we both go down different paths and people probably always try to find a way why and what and whatever. It’s not always dramatic when people break up. Some people just go their own way.” It’s good for him and it works for us. There’s nothing personal there. I’ve always said he’s championship ready, but that’s the cool thing about it. “