UFC welterweight contender Ian Machado Garry vaulted himself into title consideration final night time with a complete win over former champion Belal Muhammad.
He did so by stuffing loads of takedown makes an attempt, along with conserving issues sharp on the toes. With that being mentioned, Ian Machado Garry’s promise of knocking out Belal didn’t precisely come to fruition, and that appears to be a theme of his. It additionally appears to be one of many issues holding followers again from actually getting behind him, particularly given how outspoken he likes to be within the media.
On the finish of the day, Ian Machado Garry has overwhelmed some massive names in latest instances and you can actually make the argument that he needs to be dealing with Islam Makhachev subsequent. He put ahead a very good pitch, too, calling out the champion in emphatic vogue in his post-fight interview. On the identical time, is that this the battle that the UFC is able to e book proper now?
The opposite contenders, you can argue, are Michael Morales after he dusted off Sean Brady, and Shavkat Rakhmonov. Whereas Shavkat hasn’t been within the cage for some time attributable to damage, he did handle to defeat Ian Machado Garry, even when the Irishman did put ahead fairly an admirable effort.
Ian Machado Garry is almost there
Knocking out opponents isn’t every thing in blended martial arts, and loads of fighters have been in a position to grind their technique to a championship alternative off the again of selections. Plus, it’s not like Ian retains issues boring – he’s only a tactical man who leans into what makes him so good.
We might say that Makhachev vs Machado Garry is smart, particularly when you take within the ‘Dagestan vs Eire’ factor of the storyline, following within the footsteps of two Nurmagomedovs dealing with Conor McGregor and Paul Hughes respectively.
What we actually need, although, is to see Ian go on the market and put it on somebody within the form of means that Morales and Prates have been doing. He might have already executed sufficient, however it might positively earn him a number of extra followers and a few extra vocal assist.
