Ian Garry recently claimed that he was going to sit out and wait for a title shot, but it seems he’s now had a change of heart.
Prior to Jack Della Maddalena winning the title from Belal Muhammad, Garry had felt certain he deserved the next title shot, but with Islam Makhachev now having vacated the lightweight title in order to challenge for the 170lb belt, the Irish star has acknowledged that he’s earned the right to do so.
“I’ve said everybody should set back for the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and I believe everyone should,” Garry said of Makhchev during an interview with Ariel Helwani yesterday. “And if he wants to come up and try and achieve that double-champ status, or come up and try to beat Jack then off you go. That’s well earned and well deserved.”
With that in mind, Garry is now determined to stay active while waiting for his own shot at the title.
“I think they’re going to fight, probably October-ish,” Garry said. “ … So that will probably be the date. When it comes to me, I’m going to continue to be active. I’m never going to stop. I’m a fighter, I want to be active. I want to beat everybody up. I want to prove that I’m the best, and I don’t need a belt wrapped around my waist to prove that I’m the best. I need to keep beating the best fighters in the world and that belt will come in time.”
Garry went on to say that he’d accept any fight that the UFC offers him, including current No.1 contender Sean Brady, who called him out in a separate interview with Helwani last week.
“[let’s do] me and Ian [Machado Garry],” Brady had told Helwani a week ago. “People are very surprised I keep saying that. Like, ‘Oh, you don’t want the title shot?’ Of course, I want the title shot, but there’s still Shavkat [Rakhmonov] there, there’s Islam saying he’s moving up, you’ve got Kamaru [Usman] and [Joaquin] Buckley saying whoever wins [at UFC Atlanta is] getting a title shot. We’re all going to have to fight. I’m going to have to fight Ian Garry eventually. Why not just do it now and get it out of the way, if I’m as good as I think I am?”
