With Colby Covington apparently ruled out, Ian Garry is now turning his attention to a potential fight with Michael ‘Venom’ Page instead.
“Colby is officially out,” Garry told talkSPORT MMA. “He sustained an injury in December and he medically won’t be cleared until September. I don’t believe a f**king second of it. I think he’s running. I don’t think he wants anything to do with me, and he’s running. But, that’s where I’m at.”
So who will Garry be fighting next? former Bellator star Michael ‘Venom’ Page, who convincingly beat Kevin Holland in his UFC debut, appears to be at the top of the queue as things stand.
“I’ve said yes,” Garry told talkSport when asked about fighting Page. “I’ve said yes to that name. Him and his coaches are deciding because he seems a bit heavy to make weight in seven weeks time, but I’ve said yes.”
That being said, the way the undefeated 26-year-old tells it, he’s pretty much said ‘yes’ to a who’s-who of the division recently, but nobody has been willing to fight him.
“There’s so many at this point, you kind of lose count,” Garry said. “I feel like I’ve gone through about eight or nine names. And it’s like, ‘No, don’t want that fight. Not interested.’ The UFC are saying they’re not interested. They’ve offered me Colby. I said yes to MVP. I said yes to Sean Brady. I said yes to, I don’t even know his name, the Uzbekistani guy [Nursulton Ruziboev] if he had won [against Joaquin Buckley].
“I said to yes to Joaquin Buckley. I’ve said yes to every single person that has come my way. That is what I do. Since I’ve entered the UFC, I’ve done nothing different. I say, ‘Yes.’ I say, ‘What date? Where? And when?’”
The 14-0 Garry went on state his belief that the established contenders in the weight class are trying their best to keep the rising stars of the division from replacing them, but he thinks it’s only a matter of time before it happens anyway.
“I think there’s some older guys in the division, guys who are on their way out, on their way down, and they’re trying to maintain and hold their spot so they can have some sort of ego about it. But the truth is there’s a new wave of talent coming through. When you look at it, you can see it quite clearly. There’s me. There’s Shavkat [Rakhmonov]. There’s Jack Della Maddalena. There’s three examples of younger guys coming in and tearing up the division.
“The champion’s doing his thing. The champ can only fight as much as the champ is able to fight the next best guy, but at the end of the day the champ himself, including the top contenders, they’re only fighting twice a year. I’m looking to do three and four a year. So when I become champion, when that happens, I’m going to continue this consistency. I’m going to take out the next best guy.
“I want to clear out the division. I want to do it the way Israel [Adesanya] did it, I want to do it better than the way [Kamaru] Usman did it, and by the time I get to the belt, I’ll have taken out six of the top 15 already so there won’t be a lot more to go.”
