Ian Machado Garry has watched the UFC’s welterweight championship picture go through a shake-up, and he’s far from happy with the outcome.
Shavkat Rakhmonov was expected to face champion Belal Muhammad for the title, but when the Kazakh contender was ruled out due to injury, the UFC shuffled the deck.
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As a result, Australian contender Jack Della Maddalena was removed from his headlining bout with Leon Edwards at UFC London and promoted into a title fight against Muhammad at UFC 315.
Additionally, Sean Brady was drafted in to replace Della Maddalena to face Edwards in England this coming weekend, with Edwards stating that the UFC had told him that the fight was a number-one contender match for the welterweight title.
It has all left Garry feeling a little out of the loop, and seeing Della Maddalena given the shot at the title, despite it being his first fight in more than a year, does not sit well with the Irish star.
“I had a chat with my agent. I rang him when I heard, when they told me this news, and I was livid. Still am to this day,” said Garry on his Instagram.
“I had a number-one contender’s fight where the guy now has to get knee reconstruction and is out for a year. But you know, it’s not my fault. 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 for the world title, but Shavkat, apparently, is out injured. I wonder how that happened ,” he continued, as the video cut to a photo of Garry targeting Rakhmonov’s knee.
“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, hasn’t been active.
“So, they’re giving it to Jack Della Maddalena to fight Belal Muhammad because I’m coming off a loss. That’s OK. I’ll get you all. You’re all mine.”
Garry said that he knows he’s right at the sharp end of the welterweight division, and stated that he and Rakhmonov are more than likely to face each other on numerous occasions as they battle for welterweight glory in the future.
“Do I think I won the fight against Shavkat? No. I believe on that night and to this day that Shavkat won three rounds and I won two,” he admitted.
“But I was very close to winning that fight. In my mind, I was a takedown away from winning that fight, and I would love to run it back one day, and I would love to avenge that loss.
“And I’m excited, because I believe that guy is going to hold the belt one day. We said it. We both knew, and I said it that fight week, I believe me and Shavkat are going to meet each other far more than once in our careers.”
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With Garry forced to wait for his shot at UFC gold, the Irishman will now have to turn his attention elsewhere, and hopes to get back into the Octagon this summer at UFC 317 in Las Vegas.
“I would like to fight International Fight Week, June 28,” he said.
“I don’t care who. I don’t care who they want to put in front of me. I just want to fight and prove that I’m the best in the world.”
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