In the past few months, Ian Machado Garry has been one of the most talked about MMA fighters on the planet. Reason being – his private life and relationships. Garry had wars of words with Sean Strickland and Colby Covington most notably, and now he is just a couple of days away from his toughest challenge to date (on paper).
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Brash Irishman will compete at UFC 298 against Geoff ‘Handz of Steel’ Neal. Neal is known for being a tough customer for anybody, which was proven in the best way possible, with the performance he put out in his last outing against Shavkat Rakhmonov. Very solid boxing, great takedown defense and most importantly – heavy hands. These will be the challenges for Garry to face on Saturday.
On Wednesday’s media day conference, Garry talked about various topics and touched on current, but also future opponents and his plan to get to the welterweight title. He assessed Geof Neal and then went on to call out probably the most controversial fighter on the roster – Colby ‘Chaos’ Covington.
Colby Covington vs Ian Machado Garry – history of toxicity
Covington is known for his controversial takes and no-limit trash talking strategy whenever he appears in the media, for the past several years. Naturally, he evokes reactions from fellow fighters and many beefs started that way. The same happened with Garry.
Current beef between two fighters started at the UFC 296 pre-fight press conference when Covington was asked about Ian Garry, who had just recently pulled out of his scheduled fight against Neal (at the time). Covington went on to insult Machado Garry’s spouse Layla, hopping on the bandwagon of insults delivered to the Irish fighter in the lead up to UFC 296.
At the end of 2023 ‘The Future’ posted a video on his IG page where he can be seen writing down a ‘2024 hit list’ of the names he wants to defeat. On the paper it read: Geoff Neal, Colby Covington and Sean Strickland.
At the start of 2024, Ian Garry gave an interview to Ariel Helwani on the MMA hour stating: “There isn’t gonna be anybody in this world who’s gonna be able to save him. I promise you now I’ll finish him. Colby Covington’s gonna be slept and I hope I hit him so hard that he’s never able to speak again.”
This week, The Future spoke to MMA media members and doubled down on his call out of Covington. He said: “I want to beat Geoff Neal in spectacular fashion this weekend, and then I am going to fight Colby Covington and I’m going to retire him and rid the clown from the UFC.”
Both fighters are extremely outspoken and entertaining, polarizing figures. More importantly, they are elite fighters. One is proven to be an almost championship level competitor, 3 times coming close to being the number 1 guy, and the other is one of the top prospects in all of UFC right now, slowly approaching the top of the division. This one would be a treat for the fans!
Ian Machado Garry vs Colby Covington – early thoughts
Garry was vocal on Covington in the past, putting it out there what he thinks about ‘Chaos’. Saying that he’s a ‘d**khead’ but also complimenting his skills, especially Covington’s tremendous gas tank. Irishman sounded off by saying that he doesn’t think Colby is anything special and that he would certainly defeat him.
Stylistically, this would be a very intriguing fight for the spectators. Covington has a tremendous gas tank and is all about volume. Both with his takedown attempts and especially his strikes, as of late. Garry is more of a crisp, technical fighter relying on his distance management, feints, set ups and powerful, masked strikes which hurt his opponents.
Being a black belt in judo, training with the likes of Charles Oliveira and Demian Maia in the recent past – Garry for sure has some grappling tricks up his sleeve. The man is only 26 and he seems to show up better every time he steps foot in the Octagon, so we would surely see some new weapons from him in this potential matchup.
First things first, Ian Machado Garry has to go past Geoff Neal, who is a tough fight for anyone, to even consider a fight with Covington. Colby seems to be in a position of having to chase high-profile fights with popular names, but with all of his chances to compete for the belt seemingly used.
It’s a perfect alignment for these two to compete and Garry claims that after he defeats Geoff Neal, he would love to compete against a certain ‘clown’ as part of the undercard of Conor McGregor’s predicted return, in the International Fight Week.
Ian Machado Garry has a plan for a co-main event to Conor McGregor’s return 👀
Who is the Irishman referring to? 🤡🤔#UFC303 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/XlcQAkGfQ6
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) February 12, 2024
