Ian Machado Garry spent the better part of the past year trying to land a fight against Colby Covington, but despite his best efforts, the matchup never came together.
While the undefeated Irish welterweight says that it’s a fight the UFC wanted, Garry claims that Covington ducked, dodged, and did just about everything possible to avoid him. That belief was only further strengthened after he got pulled from the UFC Tampa main event to face Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 and then Covington immediately replaced him in a fight against Joaquin Buckley.
“He just magically f*cking reappeared out of thin air!” Garry said during UFC 310 media day. “Just came out of nowhere, didn’t he? ‘Oh yeah, I’ll do it!’ It just shows he’s a coward. It proves that he never, ever, ever wanted to fight me in the first place.
“He’s the perfect example of someone who is trying to stay relevant by talking about me, Shavkat, he even mentioned Charles [Oliveira] at one point because he was getting all the media attention. He talks out of his ass and he’s not willing to back it up.”
Even before he was asked about Covington, Garry already unleashed on fighters on the UFC roster who are offered matchups but then turn it down for whatever reason.
In his mind, there shouldn’t be an option.
Garry believes if the UFC comes calling with an opponent, every fighter should accept or get sidelined until they’re willing to accept the matchup initially offered to them.
“All these people talk to stay relevant, to keep some relevancy in the division or maintain their spot but people are far too selective in this sport and I think something needs to be changed about it,” Garry said. “It should be you fight this guy or you don’t fight at all.
“Because it’s ridiculous to have these people talk the talk but not actually back it up. This weekend is proof that I said I would do it and I’m backing it up and Shavkat’s the same.”
A former training partner when both were working out of Kill Cliff FC in Florida, Garry had nothing but praise for Rakhmonov despite some pre-fight trash talk that has added a new element to their co-main event showdown on Saturday.
In the days leading up to the fight, Rakhmonov proudly proclaimed that he actually tapped out his upcoming opponent with a submission during a sparring session that Garry’s wife was filming. Rahkmonov implored them to release the footage as an obvious jab about who was better when they were training together.
In response, Garry didn’t deny what happened but he also scoffed at the suggestion that any training session, especially one that happened several years ago, has any impact on the upcoming fight at UFC 310.
“If he wants to latch onto a moment of success in training from two years ago, and thinks I’m the same fighter I was then, then he would be sadly mistaken,” Garry said. “I don’t believe he is going to be latching onto anything like that.
“I believe he is being honest. He’s saying this happened, which it did. I’m not turning around and saying it didn’t. But if I sit here and tell you the f*cking names I’ve beaten sparring, it’s just not relevant. It would be a very different conversation. He has to do it Saturday night. I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to show him that I’m far better than he could ever imagine.”
Assuming all goes well and he’s still undefeated after facing Rakhmonov this weekend, Garry already has his sights set on a future fight against UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in 2025.
There’s no more detours after this win and Garry is happy to keep his focus on opponents who actually want to fight him rather than somebody like Covington, who he promises never would.
“He would never, ever, ever in a million years step into that octagon with me and face his fears,” Garry said about Covington. “Because I’m the man he fears the most.”
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