Ian Machado Garry has confused the fanbase with a comment ahead of his UFC Kansas City main event against Carlos Prates.
Despite suffering his first loss in the sport against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310, Ian Machado Garry felt hard done by to miss out on the welterweight title shot after Rakhmonov announced an injury would leave him unable to fight Belal Muhammad.
Instead, ‘The Future’ was offered a late notice opportunity to main event UFC Kansas City against the soaring Carlos Prates.
Ahead of their big welterweight fight, Machado Garry claimed that Prates ‘isn’t a real fighter’ which resulted in retaliation from the Brazilian.
Ian Machado Garry claims he’s ‘more Brazilian’ than Prates
Despite representing Ireland, the 27-year-old doesn’t live or train in Ireland, and instead, resides in Brazil, where he now trains at Chute Boxe.
Machado Garry has never been nailed down to one specific gym or team, and has always stated how he believes it is important to train in different places to pick up as much knowledge as possible.
Whilst using this strategy, though, the Irishman has faced several problems, and last year, he was kicked out of Leon Edwards’ gym after a disagreement with the coaching staff.
Now living in Brazil, Machado Garry has made a controversial claim that he is ‘more Brazilian’ than his opponent, Prates, who was born in São Paulo, Brazil.
“Look, the dude smokes American cigarettes. Drinks Irish whiskey. Meanwhile, I’m in Brazil having (acai and pacoquinha). I’m more Brazilian than this guy. I’ve got his whole country wanting me to win,” Machado Garry said at the UFC Kansas City media day.
Despite being on a soaring win streak in the premier promotion, Prates admitted that he is still smoking an obscene amount of cigarettes during his camp.
“That’s his life choices, that’s nothing for me to get involved in, he can do whatever he wants with his life, and we can all sit here and talk about it. At the end of the day, Saturday night, he’s gonna step into the Octagon with someone who’s a complete professional, I’m gonna manhandle him,” Machado Garry continued.
Ian Machado Garry wants to make first title defense against Islam Makhachev
With a win over ‘The Nightmare’ on Saturday night, the 27-year-old believes that he will be next to fight for the title.
Muhammad is scheduled to defend his title at UFC 315 against Jack Della Maddalena, and Machado Garry believes he will be in line to face the winner.
Going one step further, the Irishman has stated that ‘when’ he wins the title, he wants to make his first title defense against Islam Makhachev, who continues to tease a move up to 170lbs.
“I believe Belal is gonna win in Canada against Jack Della Maddalena… And then I know there’s team complications with Belal, he doesn’t wanna fight Islam because of the training and stuff like that, so then I fight Belal and beat Belal.
“And then there’s a choice, do I defend against the pound-for-pound number one in Islam Makhachev and welcome him up to the welterweight division, or do I fight Shavkat Rakhmonov after he comes off his injury.”