Ian Machado Garry continues to push his case for the next welterweight title shot against Islam Makhachev.
Makhachev just took the bet off Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 last weekend, and there’s more
than a few challengers at 170 that have a solid claim for the No. 1 contender’s spot. Garry is right there with them, and he just took out No. 2 ranked Belal Muhammad at UFC Qatar with relative ease.
During the UFC Qatar post-fight press conference, he laid out his reasoning.
“Firstly, I want to say that I have nothing but respect for Islam Makhachev,” Garry said (via MMA Junkie). “The guy is the pound-for-pound No. 1 in the world and the champion of my division. However, when you come into my division, and you’re the only thing that stops me, that is in the way of me achieving my dreams, I’m going to make sure that I punch a hole in your head. He has to fight me next.”
Garry is an impressive 17-1 in his MMA career with the sole defeat a close unanimous decision loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov in 2024. Since then he’s taken out Carlos Prates and now Muhammad.
“There’s nobody that’s fought a deeper division, that’s fought guys from top to bottom,” he said. “[Daniel] Rodrigues, [Neil] Magny, Geoff Neal, [Michael Page], Shavkat, Prates, and now Belal Muhammad, and I haven’t even gotten a title shot yet?”
“And they’re going to throw some flashes in the pan out there?” he asked of the new crop of welterweights fighting for contendership. “Not a chance. Not on my watch. Over my dead body.”
Garry then leaned hard on the history of Ireland vs. Dagestan fights that began with Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. That rivalry has sold a lot of tickets and pay-per-views, and Garry believes the marketability is just another reason why he should be next.
“Islam Makhachev is the protege of Khabib, and I am the protege of Conor, right?” Garry said. “This is the new wave of Dagestan, more technical on the feet, more technical grappling than Khabib. I’m a longer, faster, more versatile version of Conor. It’s the perfect fight to make. He has to take me down. I have to keep it on the feet.”
That’s exactly what was said about Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev, and Makhachev controlled Della Maddalena for almost 20 of their 25 minutes in the cage at UFC 322. Would Garry do any better? He’d like us all to think so, but there’s an argument to be made that the best opponent for Makhachev is someone whose base is wrestling rather than another guy who’s trying to avoid the ground.
While Garry has spent some time with Conor McGregor’s team at SBG and has paid a lot of respect to his countryman, ‘protégé’ is a strong word. But as we’ve seen, “The Future” is willing to spin a yarn any which way he has to in order to lock in a long-awaited title shot.
