Ian Garry aspires to be a double UFC champion, like his older Irish counterpart, Conor McGregor. Speaking with Ariel Helwani before his much-awaited fight against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310, the undefeated fighter undoubtedly made some bold claims.
Full of confidence, ‘The Future’ stated that after defeating Rakhmonov and then capturing the welterweight belt, he intends to move up to middleweight and dethrone Khamzat Chimaev as the middleweight kingpin.
He said, “I’ve said to you before how my ideal scenario is: I fight, I beat Shavkat Rakhmonov, I win the world title, I go to middleweight, and I fight Khamzat Chimaev. I win that belt too. I’m not afraid of any man. I know how talented I am.” But now, it seems like the words have reached the ears of ‘Borz,’ who has issued a warning to the 15-0-0 fighter.
Proving that he is a fighter who is way beyond the league of several in the UFC, Chimaev called himself a wolf and asked ‘The Future’ to stay away from his path. Taking to his social media, the 14-0-0 middleweight wrote in Russian, “@iangaryy You’re too skinny kid, don’t go near the Wolf’s teeth, you’ll end up headless.” Well, it seems like Ian Machado Garry earned himself the attention he wished to grab from ‘Borz.’
But before he gets into a fight with the middleweight, he has to face the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov, a man who truly is no easy opponent. And even if ‘The Future’ gets his fight against Khamzat Chimaev, it seems like the MMA community is not confident about this matchup. But why? Well, that’s because they believe that Ian ‘Machado’ Garry might be biting off more than he can chew.
Fans show concern for Ian Garry after Khamzat Chimaev callout
As soon as fans saw Khamzat Chimaev issue a warning to the 27-year-old, they were quick to share their opinion that despite being undefeated so far, Ian Garry is no match for ‘Borz.’ Chimaev has been one of the most dominant fighters that the UFC has ever seen, and if the welterweight goes against him, some believe it will be nothing less than a one-sided affair. Many users wrote in the comments, “He literally wipes him on the floor, bro,” “No glaze, but Khamzat does bad things to Ian,” and “Be the biggest mismatch in history; Gary would get absolutely rag dolled.”
When it was confirmed that ‘Borz’ would be going one-on-one against Robert Whittaker, many fans saw it as a tough fight for Khamzat Chimaev. One fight where he could actually lose, especially considering the strength and huge size of Whittaker. However, the fight ended with the latter tapping out due to Chimaev breaking his jaw instead. that too in the very first round. This was a lesson for many who believed the Russian was an easy fight. So reminding Ian Garry of the same, some fans wrote, “Khamzat will do him like he did Whittaker,” “You must’ve missed the Whittaker fight for sure,” and “Garry would last less time than Whittaker.”
A fan wondered why Garry was planning to fight Chimaev in the first place. If he wins the welterweight title, it makes less sense for him to move to a different division when he already has some great fighters in his very own division. “If Ian Garry wins against Shavkat, he fights for the title. What’s the point of fighting Khamzat?”