Irish welterweight Ian Garry did well on his UFC debut last November, picking up a first round finish to remain undefeated at 8-0 in his career. Ahead of his UFC 273 bout, the 24-year-old prospect aptly nicknamed ‘The Future’ credits his improvements to moving to the US to work with Henri Hooft and others at Sanford MMA.
He compared his career decision to the one from Conor McGregor, his more popular countryman that decided to stay with his SBG camp in Ireland.
“There’s obviously advantages to staying in Ireland. Like if I stayed in Ireland, I’d be the guy,” Garry told Sherdog. “But I don’t want to be the guy. I want to be pushed.
“The guys I’m stepping onto the mats here, they f—king hand hidings out everyday to everyone. There’s not a single person in this gym that wins every round, that wins every minute sparring. It is tough.
“That’s the thing I was happiest about when I came here,” he explained. “I’m gonna be in a gym with like — essentially if you go through the mindset — 40 me’s, people who think the same way. I want to win every round, I want to win every second of every round, every single day I wake up. But it’s f—king hard, and that pushes you.”
As for McGregor specifically, he said there’s no point debating what ifs because he still became a two-division champion and the sport’s biggest superstar as it is.
“People say to me like ‘Oh, Conor would have been a much better fighter had he gone away.’ I’m like ‘he done good enough! He did good enough where he was.’ I’m not going to think about if he could’ve done better. He done what he did.”
Garry, a former Cage Warriors champion, will look to go 2-0 in the UFC when he faces Darian Weeks this weekend at UFC 273.
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