Ian Machado Garry’s longtime dream has been to compete on a UFC event with fellow Irishman, Conor McGregor, and he was a few weeks out from doing so at UFC 303 on June 29.
As soon as Conor McGregor‘s comeback fight against Michael Chandler was scheduled for UFC 303 on June 29, Ian Machado Garry called for a fight on the same card against Colby Covington.
With ‘Chaos’ rejecting the offer to fight ‘The Future’, the 26-year-old turned his attention to Michael ‘Venom’ Page, despite him being low down in the welterweight rankings.
Ian Machado Garry details reaction to Conor McGregor’s UFC 303 withdrawal
The Irishman was just a few weeks out from realizing one of his dreams, to share a card with ‘The Notorious’ McGregor. However, the 35-year-old pulled out of his scheduled main event, crushing Machado Garry’s dreams.
The 26-year-old admitted that the only reason he was fighting on June 29 originally was because of his desire to share a card with McGregor, and otherwise, he may not have accepted a fight on the card.
“The only reason I’m fighting anyone on June 29th is because I wanted to fight on the same card as Conor,” Machado Garry admitted in an interview with MMAJunkie.
“I wanted to represent Ireland, side by side with Conor, and do our country proud, the two biggest stars in the sport, in Ireland, representing our country on the biggest stage possible, breaking records in the UFC, which Conor already did and that’s what I wanted to do,” Machado Garry added.
Machado Garry has detailed his reaction to finding out about McGregor’s withdrawal, stating that he was on holiday with no mobile service, and his team told him once the holiday was over.
“Dude, finding out Conor was out, I was on holiday playing golf I had no phone, no connection to social media, anything, my team told me when we finished the holiday ‘Oh yeah by the way, Conor’s out’, and I’m like, that sucks, I still have a job to go and do.
“Now I’m the one carrying the flag for Ireland, we were going to do it (together) but I’m still going to do it, I’m going to go out there and prove that the fighting Irish are still in force and when we go to war, we go to war,” Machado Garry detailed.
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Ian Machado Garry hopeful of sharing a UFC Ireland card with McGregor
Although the 26-year-old won’t realize his dream next weekend, he is hopeful that with a solid performance at UFC 303, a UFC event in Ireland could become possible, making for a perfect comeback story for ‘The Notorious’.
“God has other plans, and God works in mysterious ways and I’m excited to see Conor back, and maybe, this means we get our Ireland event, maybe this means we get to bring it back to Ireland and we can main and co-main together,” the welterweight contender stated.
Michael Page recently claimed that Machado Garry isn’t his ‘usual self’ ahead of their UFC 303 matchup as he usually attempts to get into his opponent’s head, but the 26-year-old is confused by the 37-year-old’s comments.
“I’ve never met or talked to Michael, ever, so I don’t know how he’d be able to pull that out of his arse,” the 26-year-old responded.
Despite ‘The Future’ having campaigned for his fight against ‘MVP’ to be a five-round co-main event, the two 170lb contenders will open up the International Fight Week event, with the winner likely adding themselves to the welterweight title picture.
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