UFC 330 went down last Saturday night (Aug. 16, 2026) inside Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pa., leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Kaue Fernandez, who suffered a first-round knockout loss against Jalin Turner (see it here).
And Gillian Robertson, who suffered a one-sided beatdown at the hands of current women’s Strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern. And Edson Barboza, who suffered his fourth straight loss after getting knocked out by Esteban Ribovics in what
proved to be the Brazilian bombers retirement fight.
But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Ian Garry.
Coming into the fight, Garry was looking to shock the world by becoming only the second man to ever defeat current Welterweight champion, Islam Makhachev. In the process, he was hoping to stop the champ’s win streak, which sat at 16 coming into the bout. Furthermore, Garry had all of the confidence in the world since he had won his last two fights against Carlos Prates and Belal Muhammad.
Unfortunately for the Irish slugger, that momentum didn’t carry into the fight.
From the jump, Makhachev set the pace and let Garry know it was going to be a long night of grappling. While Makhachev did have some success in the striking attack — including knocking down the challenger early in the fight with a head kick — it was the champion’s world-class wrestling that controlled the fight.
Don’t get it twisted, Garry did get a few good licks in and even made the champ bleed after tagging his face with a few good shots. In the end, however, Makhachev did everything right to once again cruise to a unanimous decision win.
“Tonight wasn’t my night,” Garry said post-fight. “I feel great, I did great, Islam was just better than me tonight and that’s OK. I want everybody who loves me and supports me and wants to see me do better, I want you to know that I’m going to be back.
“I’m not disheartened by this. I’m bulletproof in my mind. I’m 28 years of age, I just fought maybe the greatest fighter we’ve ever seen in this sport and I pushed him to the f*cking wire and I’m so proud of myself and I’m so proud of my team and everything that we’ve done. I’m so proud of what I’ve done in this world and who I’ve become. Nobody’s stopping me. Tonight was not my night.”
Aside from taking the tough loss, Garry took some harsh criticism from both Dana White and Makhachev himself post-fight for being too friendly inside the cage and showing little to no killer instinct. And they may have been on to something because the challenger did try to always give Makhachev props or some time of sportsmanship touch after each round. That friendliness, however, was apparent all during fight week, as well.
Regardless, Garry comes up short in his first bid to win a UFC title but is determined to not let it be his last.
As far as what could be next for him, perhaps a fight against former division champion Jack Della Maddalena is in order. Like Garry, Maddalena has a one-sided loss to Makhachev at UFC 322 last November. In his bounce back fight, “JDM” came up short against current top contender, Carlos Prates, giving him his first two-fight losing streak since he suffered back-to-back losses to kick off his pro career a decade ago.
Maddalena — ranked No. 4 — is in desperate need of a win if he wants to hang around the championship picture. He is hanging on to his Top 5 ranking by a thread, but a win over Garry will assure he stays there and will be thrust right back into title fight consideration. Another loss, however, will drop him down even further.
For Garry, a victory over a former world champion will also do wonders for his hopes of climbing back to a championship fight.
For complete UFC 330 results and play-by-play click here.
