Irish welterweight contender Ian Machado Garry is set to face Carlos Prates in Kansas City on Saturday night, hoping to deliver a memorable performance and bounce back into title contention.
Garry`s return comes after a closely contested decision loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov in December. This fight against Prates is a key opportunity for him to strengthen his bid for a shot at the UFC welterweight championship.
Known as `The Future`, Garry is focused on securing a definitive victory in this main event bout to reaffirm his position in the division.
Reflecting on his fight against Rakhmonov, he commented, “That was so much fun and I enjoyed every second of it.”
He added that he relished the challenge: “I enjoyed the short notice [call-up,] the excitement preparing for this boogeyman that they called him.”
Garry expressed confidence in his current skill level, stating, “I am far better than I believed I was, go show the world.” Predicting the outcome against Prates, he said, “I do not see Carlos Prates getting to the end of the second [round] and if he does, fair play to him. But then I`m not going to let him get past the third.”
Machado Garry`s fight with Prates takes place just weeks before the current welterweight champion, Belal Muhammad, is scheduled to defend his title against Jack Della Maddalena, who replaced the injured Rakhmonov.
Despite his loss to Rakhmonov, Garry believes he should have been considered as the next opponent for Muhammad.
He voiced his frustration about the situation: “I feel like when you do a number one contender fight, and fair enough my hand didn`t get raised and I don`t believe I won the fight, I believe it was 3-2 to Shavkat. [However], when Shavkat can`t compete because of an injury to his knee that I absolutely caused in that fight. I may not have won the battle, but I won the war. [So,], to not even get a call [from the UFC] I felt was disrespectful.”
“It irritated me that I didn`t even get the respect of a call to say, would you [fight Belal Muhammad for the UFC title]?” he added.
This feeling of disrespect intensified into anger when the title opportunity was given to Maddalena, who had recently recovered from injury.
“I was seething, just seething when I found out they were giving it to a guy that has been injured and hasn`t fought for a year. For me it was more of a respect thing,” Garry explained.
He clarified it wasn`t personal against his fellow fighter: “I know what Jack [Maddalena] has done and what Jack can do in this division. It`s not against him, but the guy has been battling injury.”
With his title aspirations on the line in every subsequent fight, a dominant performance against Carlos Prates, who holds an impressive 11-fight win streak, is crucial for Machado Garry.
Garry outlined his strategy for demanding the next title shot: “April 26 when I knock out Carlos Prates, you`ll see [how I demand a title shot.] That`s my way of doing things, I don`t need to talk [constantly over social media]. I don`t need to say it to your face, but I`ll say it after when I`m on that microphone.”
He concluded by arguing for his marketability: “The truth is [Maddalena] vs Belal isn`t as interesting as Machado Garry vs Belal and that`s the reality of the situation. I am far more interesting in and outside the octagon. There is going to be more people paying for pay-per-views and more people paying to be in that be in that arena [to] watch my main event.”
