The Rise & Spectacular Fall Of Ian Machado Garry

The Rise & Fall Of
Ian Machado Garry’s Stock

In case you haven’t heard: #10 welterweight contender Ian Machado Garry has withdrawn from his scheduled bout against Vincente Luque at this weekend’s UFC 296 due to a nasty case of pneumonia.

This development is rather bittersweet for mixed martial arts’ spectators as a whole.

For the more level-headed punters out there, it represents quite the blow to the promotion’s closing pay-per-view event of the year. Especially given how undeniable the Irish pro brawler’s talents are — regardless of whatever your personal feelings towards him might be.

For the more rabid segment of the oft-unforgiving fandom, however, this is just more cannon fodder for their sustained campaign to publicly slander the 26-year-old talent.

In fact, I dare say a good majority of them have happily traded the prospect of Ian Machado Garry being verbally tag teamed by the firebrand duo, middleweight champion Sean Strickland and former interim welterweight titleholder Colby Covington, live this week in exchange for the onslaught of meme opportunities that lie ahead.

But how exactly did we get here? And at what point did Garry, once hailed as the exciting “future” of the UFC, almost unanimously become the villain? Keep in mind, when we say “villain,” we really mean “villain” and not “heel” (there is a key difference now).

The broad strokes of this hate sandwich can be summarised by the following:

• Poor sportsmanship towards opponents such as Song Kenan and Neil Magny; the latter of whom he falsely accused of being a “child abuser” during a presser taken too far, which legitimately impacted Magny’s very real custody battle.

• Diva behaviour which has led to him being kicked out of multiple high-profile gyms, most notably reigning welterweight champ Leon Edwards and Brendan Allen’s Team Renegade.

• While it’s far less warranted on this front and entirely irrelevant IMHO, taking his wife’s maiden name (not the surname of said wife’s ex-husband; who also happens to be Garry’s nutritionist) for the sake of their son/stepson; earning him the label of a “cuckhold” in the process.

[Side note: not to come off as an Ian Machado Garry defender of anything but that whole internet rumour about him, wife Layla Anna-Lee, and the ex-husband/nutritionist sharing a house together has been debunked.]

But at the very heart of this ongoing saga, it’s simply a matter of one man’s ego overshadowing both his talent and his achievements thus far.

Since the advent of the Conor McGregor persona, countless have conflated cheap mimicry with the so-called “formula” to success.

Anyone can be a cocky and brash asshole at a press conference — few understand how to properly employ the mind games for both competitive and marketing purposes; nor can they actually back it up with a performance as spectacular as prime Mystic Mac (pre-Khabib Nurmagomedov, FYI).

That’s precisely what we’ve seen occur with Ian Machado Garry. Somewhere down the line, he uncharismatically put the media circus before the Octagon, while only recording less than a handful of exciting highlight reel-worthy career moments. And it’s clearly left a bad taste in the mouths of the majority.

The grand tragedy of it all is the bloke indeed has the potential to live up to his nickname, “The Future,” and cinch the welterweight throne. Though I have a feeling the conversation will, for the time being, remain squarely fixed on literally anything else.

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• December 17th [10:00 AM AEST]
  UFC 296: Leon Edwards vs Colby Covington
  T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas | US

• January 21st, 2024 [TBA]
  UFC 297: Sean Strickland vs Dricus du Plessis
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• February 18th, 2024 [TBA]
  UFC 298: Alexander Volkanovski vs Ilia Topuria
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• March 10th, 2024 [TBA]
  UFC 299: Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera
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