RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Ian Machado Garry came up short in his bid for welterweight gold against Islam Makhachev at UFC 330. UFC CEO Dana White expects Garry to reflect on Saturday night in Philadelphia and kick himself for how the fight was approached in the late rounds.
The competitive five-round affair saw waves of momentum for both competitors, highlighted by Makhachev's stellar grappling and Garry's sharp striking. In the end, Makhachev (29-1) made a successful first defense of his 170-pound crown and broke the record for the longest UFC win streak at 17 with a unanimous decision victory.
When reacting to the fight in the UFC 330 post-fight press conference , White noted how he believed Garry seemed to drop the ball in the final round.
"I think that — this is my honest opinion on it — I felt like tonight was set up for the upset," White told reporters backstage. "I felt like the upset could happen tonight with so much on the line. All the records Islam has, and he's going to break Anderson Silva's record [for longest UFC win streak]. There's weight classes for a reason. Ian Garry is a big, rangy, strong guy who has great takedown defense. If you look at his takedown defense tonight against Islam, it was impressive.
"Ian is a talented guy, but if he had even an ounce of killer instinct in that fifth round — he had been beating him to the body; Islam's whole right side, his face, was beat up. You don't come out, hug, and shake hands. That s*** drives me f***ing crazy when there's so much at stake. There's also a lot of mental gamesmanship in this game. You come out in that fifth round with a flying knee or something crazy, and you try to finish that fight. This is one of those fights that Ian will go back and say, 'F***. I wish I could do that over again.'"
White shared a similar sentiment to viewers who felt Garry was arguably the fresher of the two fighters going into that last round. Momentum may not have been entirely on his side, but after the opening two rounds, Garry began to mount more success than he started with.
That said, Garry still received his props from White for being as talented as he is. It was just about being a meaner combatant on the biggest night of his professional life.
"If he would have come out of that corner like a raging f***ing bull, we might be having a different conversation right now," White said.
"Ian's a classy guy. He always shows class. Before the fight, he goes over and shakes all the corners' hands. It's great. But when that f***ing bell rings, you gotta switch all that s*** off. You definitely gotta do it in the fifth round. He fought a great fight against Islam, who everybody in this room and everybody else is saying we might start talking about GOAT. You don't go shake the f***ing GOAT's hand before the fifth round. You come out to f***ing annihilate him. That just has to be your mindset, in my humble opinion."
For Makhachev, he was taken to the limit, unlike most of the fights he's had in his legendary career. Now firmly in the greatest-of-all-time conversation, Makhachev ranked this latest victory as one of his toughest, but not above the first encounter with Alexander Volkanovski in February 2023.
Islam Makhachev of Russia and Ian Machado Garry of Ireland embrace after their welterweight title bout during UFC 330 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday in Philadelphia. Sarah Stier via Getty Images
Regarding the respect factor from Garry that perplexed White, Makhachev also found it to be odd.
"Honestly, I don't understand, man," Makhachev said. "This is the fight. This is not something we have to hug each other every round, you know? We're going to war. To break the face. The eye. That's why I respect all my opponents, but Ian, I don't know. He respect too much.
"He's a good guy. Very kind. But this is the war. Look at my face. I just come to beat everybody. It's not something you come to play. This is fight. Not some game."
Going forward, Makhachev can cement himself beyond the current argument for MMA's all-time best that he's already created. After dominating the lightweight division, he's only two fights into this welterweight title run and has noted that he still wants to gain more weight and strength. Ideally, he wants to get back in action as soon as possible.
Ultimately, White isn't ready to fully crown his pound-for-pound best fighter as the greatest to ever enter a cage. But he knows it's entirely possible at the rate we're witnessing.
"If he keeps going like he says he's gonna keep going, [that record] might never be beaten. At least while I'm alive. So it's very impressive what he did," White said.
"And again, my thoughts on how Ian performed tonight — you can flip that whole script and drop it on Islam, on how impressively he beat a big, strong, rangy guy who was doing damn good work. Islam did everything he needed to do to beat this guy."
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