Ranked UFC welterweight and hot prospect, Ian Garry has been pictured training with the champion of his division, Leon Edwards. The two men are set to compete (against different opponents) at the stacked UFC 296 from Las Vegas on December 16th.
Edwards will be headlining the card against rival, Colby Covington and his welterweight strap will be on the line. Garry will compete against teammate, Vicente Luque in a pivotal welterweight clash to determine who will cement themselves as a top 10 contender.
Ian Garry 🤝 Leon Edwards
📹: @iangarryMMA pic.twitter.com/o3UfYoQvYg
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) October 3, 2023
Nomadic Irishman
Although Garry has taken the trip to Team Renegade MMA in Birmingham to train with the champion, he’s not settled there. He constantly mixes up his training, getting different looks and working with different bodies before every fight by travelling across the world. Having Kill Cliff FC as his centre, Garry isn’t afraid to travel to learn from other coaches and fighters.
Ian Garry has arrived at Chute Box to train with Charles Oliveira 🇮🇪 🤝🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/QYIxnhgvbe
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) July 12, 2023
This is what makes Garry so good, that he consistently gets training in with the best guys and girls in the world in order to improve. He’s also trained at SBG Ireland in his home country, sparring with former double champion, Conor McGregor shortly after his last fight.
Lineage 🇮🇪🥋 @ufc @iangarryMMA #IrishMMA pic.twitter.com/M2qZPs76ar
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 2, 2023
Where he’ll be based ahead of UFC 296 is currently unknown. As we know, he has Henri Hooft, however, with Luque also training under the tutelage of Hooft, we’re unsure at the current time as to whose corner Hooft will be in.
Defending Champion
It’s important for Edwards to train with Garry too. Although he takes on a traditional wrestler in Covington at UFC 296, we’ve seen Chaos struggle to get fights to the ground in the past and being forced to kickbox.
In both of his fights with Kamaru Usman, Covington wasn’t able to ground the then-champion at all. He failed on all 11 of his attempts in their rematch in 2021. We know Edwards has elite takedown defence, defending 11 of Usman’s takedowns in their rematch earlier this year.
This means the fight may play out on the feet, where Edwards has a clear advantage, which is what makes this fight so intriguing.
