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Things got a little weird this week during the UFC 292 PPV build up, when longtime welterweight gatekeeper Neil Magny took his media day time to try and bring a little trash talk to his opponent. Magny promised he’d ‘whoop’ the fast rising Irish prospect like, “a whooping that you give your son,” adding that he was “quite accustomed” to handing those out as a father.
“There’s the whooping that you give somebody in high school or in grade school,” Magny explained to the attending media. “Was when, ‘He talkin’ about my mom!’ And you put a beating on him there. And there’s a whooping that you give your son, now. Like, to kinda teach him life, a little bit. Being a father, I’ve become quite accustomed to that kind of whooping now. That’s the kind of whooping I’m looking forward to giving [Ian Machado Garry] on Saturday.”
Garry pounced on the rhetoric, in a response video, holding his own child and asking “Do you want me to beat him up? I’ll beat him up, because apparently he beat his son up.”
It’s safe to say Magny wasn’t happy about this turn of events.
Neil Magny gets buried by Ian Machado Garry at pre-fight presser
The two men got a chance to sit down and hash out the issue relatively face to face at the UFC 292 pre-fight presser on Thursday, where Machado Garry took Magny to task for his statements once again.
“I think Neil was given a f—king mic yesterday, and he should sit up here on this stage and say nothing,” Machado Garry said of his opponent (transcript via MMA Junkie). “He put his f—king foot in the dirt. If he speaks today, he’s digging a hole.
“Nobody is allowed to ask Neil Magny a question today. He’s to sit there and reflect on the s—t that he said, because what he said was f—king ridiculous. … We are tackling a very, very big f—king issue here, mate. He should sit there and f—king sit down, shut up, and reflect on what he said.”
Magny attempted to step in and defend himself, but was quickly run over by Machado Garry once again.
“No, no, no—Neil’s not answering a question,” Machado Garry continued. “He’s going to sit there, and he’s going to be f—king quiet. There is no f—king right to ever put your hand on a kid, ever—discipline, anything. He’s to sit there and be quiet.”
Magny offers his rebuttal
Eventually the ‘Haitian Sensation’ was able to get a word in edgewise, where he quickly backtracked on his rhetoric, claiming that Machado Garry just wanted to “play the victim” and “knew for a fact” that Magny didn’t hit his kids.
“You want to play victim so bad, bro,” Magny told his opponent. “You know exactly what that statement meant. … You know for a fact I’ve never put a hand on my child.”
Undeterred, Machado Garry had another go at Magny later in the presser, continually talking over the former Ultimate Fighter contestant whenever he tried to answer a question. “You should be f—king ashamed of yourself,” he chided Magny, “saying you’re going to lay hands on a f—king child.”
Eventually Magny tried to lay down an ultimatum, but it did little to stop him from getting harangued.
“Do not mention my child,” he told Machado Garry. “Do not mention my child. I will slap you on this stage right now. Do not mention my child. That’s your only warning. Shut your mouth and do not mention my child. Next question please.”
Considering how the whole circus has gone, this just might be the last time Magny ever tries to build hype for a fight with some pre-event trash talk. If nothing else, it seems he’s clearly let his opponent get in his head and it’s hard not to think he won’t be carrying some extra emotions to the cage on fight night.
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