Ian Machado Garry made a bold claim about Islam Makhachev ahead of their welterweight title clash at UFC 330. The Irishman firmly believes he is the toughest opponent Makhachev has ever faced during his career.
Machado Garry earned his title shot after securing back-to-back unanimous decision victories over Carlos Prates and former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad.
Makhachev, the reigning welterweight champion, has defeated the likes of Dustin Poirier, Arman Tsarukyan, Charles Oliveira, and Alexander Volkanovski. He most recently captured the welterweight title with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Jack Della Maddalena.
Still, Machado Garry does not believe those opponents posed as much of a threat as he does.
“I believe I do everything better than all of [Makhachev’s] past opponents. I’m smarter, more intelligent, and I have a different mindset. I believe he’s going to come in as confident as ever. Then we dance, we find out who truly is the greatest welterweight walking the planet right now,” Machado Garry told BetVictor.
He continued:
“Islam has to grab a hold of me to have the best possible chance of winning this fight. I have to keep the fight on the feet to have the best possible chance of winning this fight,” he said. “The grappling stops the striking, the striking stops the grappling, and this is the highest-level fight in MMA, where we have the two polar opposites collide.”
Ian Machado Garry Says He Does Not Fear Islam Makhachev
Ian Machado Garry also made it clear that he does not fear Islam Makhachev. However, the Irishman praised Makhachev and holds the UFC welterweight champion in high regard.
“I’ve always had respect for Islam. I was the fighter who said if he wants to come to this weight division, we all step back and allow him the respect of coming up and going for that two-weight world champion status,” Machado Garry told BetVictor. “I think he’s a phenomenal fighter, I think he’s one of the greatest talents we’ve seen in this sport in this generation. I’m just excited to prove how good I am against him.”
Although the Irishman respects the welterweight champion, he stressed that he is determined to become champion.
“Having respect for him doesn’t mean I’m afraid of him. I have no fear in this sport. I’ll fight any man, and I think I’ve proven that I will fight anyone, anytime, anywhere. I believe I’m one of the only fighters on this planet right now where you can actually genuinely say,” Yep, I believe him,’ when it comes to that mantra.”
Machado Garry Says Makhachev Fight Will Not be Similar to Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Machado Garry also said that his fight with Makhachev will be entirely different than Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. Tensions were high during the buildup for McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov, and the rivalry turned personal on multiple occasions.
Machado Garry made it clear that his bout with Makhachev will be nothing like that.
“This is a completely different fight than Conor and Khabib. Conor and Khabib, that fight was unrivaled in what that caused in the MMA world,” Machado Garry told BetVictor. “As a Conor fan as well, that was a dark fight. The energy around that was like a black cloud. From both sides, there was an animosity and a darkness to that fight that I didn’t love.”
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