Islam Makhachev looks forward to defending his welterweight title against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330, but he’s going to pass on tuning in to any interviews from the challenger.
The two meet in the Aug. 15 main event, which takes place at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, and Garry has been busy making the media rounds as he looks to knock of MMA Fighting’s No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter. Garry is known for riling up the fan base with his comments, and he’s also frequently rubbed his fellow fighters
the wrong way, including recent UFC Belgrade star Uros Medic who took issue with Garry suggesting the world would be better if it was ran by women.
From what Makhachev has seen, Garry needs to focus more time in the gym than in the podcast studio.
“I saw a couple of his interviews, honestly he looks very bad in these interviews,” Makhachev told MMA Junkie. “Better for him training more and do less interviews. It looks like somebody in the house controls him and tells him what to say in the interview. He looked very bad in the interviews, honestly.”
Makhachev also took a shot at Garry’s approach to hyping fights.
“In the fight week, he always tries to be the bad guy, but he acts like he’s a bad guy,” Makhachev said.
Garry heads into his UFC title opportunity coming off of back-to-back wins over former champion Belal Muhammad and top contender Carlos Prates. Since joining the UFC in 2021, Garry has gone 10-1, with his lone loss coming against Shavkat Rakhmonov. The 28-year-old Irishman is known for his unwavering confidence and he has frequently stated he plans to dominate and finish Makhachev.
Whether the fight takes place primarily on the ground or on the feet, Makhachev expects Garry to fall like all the others.
“Everybody knows his ground game,” Makhachev said, laughing. “Everybody talking. Everybody say, ‘I’m going to knock out Islam, I’m going to submit Islam,’ but when fight begins, they all forgot what they said.”
Makhachev’s longtime association with close friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov has added another layer to his feud with Garry, who hails from the same country as Nurmagomedov’s longtime rival Conor McGregor. That has led to some fans dubbing the UFC 330 main event as a continuation of the Dagestan vs. Ireland beef, but Makhachev shrugged at the comparison.
“This is Dagestan vs. Ireland guy from AliExpress,” Makhachev said.
