Welterweight standout has fight booked vs. ex-champ Usman
Joaquin Buckley was not impressed with Ian Machado Garry’s performance at UFC on ESPN 66.
Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) survived a late scare to defeat Carlos Prates (21-7 MMA, 4-1 UFC) by unanimous decision in Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Machado Garry was in firm control throughout the fight, until he was reversed on the ground and ate some hard ground and pound late in Round 5. Prates tried to swarm Machado Garry for the finish, but it was too little, too late.
“I think it was trash,” Buckley told Inside Fighting of Machado Garry’s in. “I really think Ian Garry had the potential to really put it on Prates, but he tried to play it safe the whole time, tried to keep from getting knocked out. Obviously, we’ve seen that Prates, in that fifth round, he was trying to get to him, and he turned Ian Garry into a booty boy – my man trying to wrestle, my man trying to hold on for dear life. But I feel like Ian Garry played himself. He really could have had a Performance of the Night-type ending, but you know, too scared.”
Machado Garry was asked about Buckley (21-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC) in the post-fight news conference, but dismissed him immediately.
“That man is an absolute p*ssy,” Machado Garry said. “I don’t care for anything he has to say. Leave him to be him, and let’s move on.”
Buckley will look to emerge as a title contender when he takes on former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 257 main event June 14 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
