Michael Bisping was not a fan of Ian Machado Garry's approach at UFC 330.
Machado Garry (17-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) showed UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev (29-1 MMA, 18-1 UFC) plenty of respect before, during and after their title fight this past Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. He lost the bout by unanimous decision but was able to inflict damage to Makhachev's face.
"The big question is what was Ian Garry doing, and why are people doing this? It's mixed martial arts, it's the UFC, we're trying to knock each other out, we're trying to do harm, break jaws, fracture orbitals, take out the knees, choke them out unconscious," Bisping said on his YouTube channel. "You don't need to high five at the start of every single goddamn
round. You don't need to hug, you don't need to share respect and all that type of stuff."
Machado Garry's attitude even caught Makhachev off guard and had UFC CEO Dana White saying he lacked killer instinct in what was a competitive fight – and Bisping agrees.
"Let's not get the intention twisted. We're still trying to harm our opponent," Bisping said. "We're still trying to damage them and take them out of it. I get it. You want to touch gloves maybe at the end of five rounds. That's fine. When you go through four rounds of absolute blood and guts, when you beat the sh*t out of one another with no care and reckless abandon for one another's futures, that's fine. At the end of it, you've been through something. Give them a touch glove at the start of Round 5 and you say, 'We're going to war, let's have it, let's bring it.' .... Ian Garry before the fight was ruffling a lot of feathers. He was answering questions for Islam Makhachev about Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, even though he's never met the guy, saying, 'Oh, he would be really proud of you.'
"Before the fight started, they were touching gloves. Ian Garry's creating these moments. I always say when someone is trying to touch gloves before a fight starts, when you reach out and you make eye contact with your opponent at the other side of the octagon, and you're like, 'We're touching gloves, right?' They might say yeah, they might say no, they might say shut up. What the person that's trying to initiate the glove touch, they are saying, 'Hey, listen, take it easy on me. I know we talked a lot of sh*t leading up to this, but we're martial artists, and let's be respectful and take it easy on me.' It is a sign of weakness."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Hall of Famer: Ian Machado Garry's friendliness 'a sign of weakness'
