It is true that Ian Machado Garry’s career has at times felt more like a saga unfolding, as there’s always a talking point beyond his abilities in the cage. Before his fight with Geoff Neal, there was a lot of red-flag talk about how Team Renegade had evicted him for being a distraction in the gym. Then he got lambasted by the louder of his fellow fighters for having a relationship with a woman 14 years his senior. Did he forsake his Irish roots when he moved to Brazil?
You’d be made to believe so from the Reddit forums. And emulating Conor McGregor in the early going didn’t do him any favors, either. Audacity isn’t something you try on like a tuxedo.
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This time through, Garry seemed hellbent on proving he was more Brazilian than Carlos Prates, who hails from the very shores of Caraguatatuba. He was speaking Portuguese to anyone who’d appreciate it, as he got set to face Prates in the main event of UFC Kansas City on Saturday night. From the sounds of it, his Portuguese accent is pretty damn good, and that comes from no less of an authority than Prates himself.
But you know what? As the haters keep pounding at his door and he keeps answering, you just have to say … good for him. At some point, you have to appreciate that Garry shows up and takes care of business. In this case, he agreed to a fight on three weeks’ notice against a terrifying striker who had knocked out all five guys he’d faced in the UFC as if it wasn’t a thing.
And for three and a half rounds, it wasn’t.
Garry outclassed Prates from the jump. He mixed his attack, using his range to piece up Prates on the feet, and shooting in on him 19 times in 25 minutes. The four takedowns he did land were cautionary tales, disrupting any aggression that might’ve been devised at Fighting Nerds HQ. Prates was rendered gun-shy by his own standards, getting doubled-up in striking differential. And he was left in a desperate predicament by the championship rounds, needing to score a finish or lose on the scorecards.
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To Prates’ credit, he did have moments down the stretch. He made things interesting when he punished Garry too little too late in the fifth round, which will become a talking point for Garry’s next appearance.
When will that be? If he has it his way, it could come in a couple of weeks. He proclaimed himself the backup fighter for Belal Muhammad’s welterweight title defense against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 on May 10 in Montreal, and — sure enough — UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that he’d indeed been booked into that understudy role.
Which is, of course, a wild thought. If Garry were to hurdle Prates and either Della Maddalena or Muhammad in a two-week span, it would go down as the most absurd division takeover on record.
Ian Machado Garry punches Carlos Prates at UFC Kansas City. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)
(Josh Hedges via Getty Images)
And if not that fight, Garry says he’d be happy to rematch Shavkat Rakhmonov, as that’s one of those fights that leaves a lot of regret. Not a lot of people are clamoring for a first fight with Shavkat. Yet Garry seems to be OK being thrown in there with all the division’s best — and honestly, this is where he is distinguishing himself. Garry is genuinely down to fight any of these fighters, even if the circumstances are less than ideal, and there or scores of people who want to throw a beer mug through the screen each time he gets his hand raised.
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For an Irish-Brazilian fighter (presumably) in search of his own individuality, to sincerely be willing to fight anyone is at least a strong identifier.
But what I like is that he has been quietly debunking campfire stories of boogeymen. Shavkat’s intimidation factor was a solid 10 before Garry stepped in with him; by the end of five rounds, it was down to a cool eight. Losing three rounds to two across the board felt awfully close to a “moral victory,” but in any case, it humanized a fighter who hadn’t really been challenged. Same thing to a lesser degree happened with Prates. He had clobbered everyone he’d faced into the smelling salts, yet Garry made him look ordinary.
In other words, he’s out there handing out blueprints.
Maybe his slogan should be: Making people vincible since 1997.
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It’s time to put some hespect on Garry’s name. The haters will point to his series of decisions. They will continue to be put off by his interviews, which always seem to veer off into Cringeville. They will still throw words like WAG at him as he makes the walk.
All good. As he got his hand raised in Kansas City, he pretended to take a drag of a cigarette before putting it out with his foot. A little gesture for Prates, who smokes half-a-pack of cigarettes a day. As the Ian Machado Garry saga continues, it’s not a bad way to handle the criticism, either.
