Ian Machado Garry has vented his fury at the fact that Jack Della Maddalena was given a welterweight title shot against Belal Muhammad at UFC 314 next month instead of him.
The 27-year-old Garry had been on the verge of title contention last year after putting together an eight-fight winning streak since joining the promotion, only to then falter at the final hurdle when he lost a title eliminator against Shavkat Rakhmonov in November.
Nevertheless, Garry is adamant that he still deserved the title opportunity ahead of the seven-fight unbeaten Maddalena after Rakhmonov withdrew due to a knee injury.
“Why aren’t I fighting for the title? I had a chat with my agent,” Garry said on Instagram. “I rang him when he told me about this news, and I was livid – still am to this day. I had a No. 1 contender’s fight where the guy (Rakhmonov) now has to get knee reconstruction and is out for a year. But you know, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do it. I didn’t stab his knee 20 something times and boot the leg off. I’m not fighting for a world title because I’m coming off a loss, and they’re giving it to a guy who’s been injured for a year, and they think that’s more exciting, but they’re wrong.
“The world title fight was meant to be Shavkat Rakhmonov taking on Belal Muhammad, but Shavkat apparently is out injured. I wonder how that happened?
“ Now they’re pulling in a guy who hasn’t fought in a year because he’s had an operation on his forearm because he broke it in his last fight, hasn’t fought in a long time, and hasn’t been active. So, they’ve given it to Jack Della Maddalena because I’m coming off of a loss.
“That’s OK. Don’t worry. I’ll get you all. You’re all mine.”
