BOSTON – Ian Machado Garry didn’t knock out Neil Magny on Saturday night like he said he would, but the way Garry beat him at UFC 292 might’ve worked out even better.
For 15 minutes, Garry (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) showed his striking was on another level as he battered Magny high and low en route to a lopsided unanimous decision win by scores of 30-26 twice and a rare 30-24 from one judge. Afterward, when he sat at the podium for the UFC 292 post-fight news conference at TD Garden, the always brash Garry wasted no time telling reporters just how great he is.
“I f*cking told you guys: I’m so good,” Garry said. “And I don’t sit here like a d*ckhead saying that. I mean it, I know it, I’ve trained with the best in the world. I know what I’m capable of. I know what I’m able to go in there and do against these people – my timing, my speed is just different. But it’s my intelligence. It’s my intelligence.
“Today I could’ve absolutely went and got the finish, or I could’ve ended up getting f*cking choked out because I was silly and I made a mistake. So what I did was I just took my time. I clinically just disposed of him in every single which way.”
Garry, who is just the second UFC welterweight to start 6-0 with the promotion, especially was clinical in how he continuously chopped down Magny’s knees with leg kicks. He said he knew that was a primary way to attack Magny the moment he dropped him with his first two kicks.
“I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is gonna be a long night for you,’” Magny said. “That guy’s going home in a wheel chair, and I f*cking said it: Tonight he is being walked home by someone in a wheel chair, and he’s gonna go home, and he’s gonna sit and reflect on everything he’s ever f*cking done in life. I whooped his ass tonight, and he better sit there and think, ‘F*ck, I might need to change my life.’”
Garry continued, “What I did tonight was so easy, so clinical, but it was so special. The energy that I was able to get from that Boston crowd, the energy that I soaked up, it was so much fun.”
Garry, who entered fight week No. 13 in the UFC rankings at 170 pounds, is sure to climb after his performance. As he looks up at who’s ahead of him, one name stands out for his next fight: Stephen Thompson.
Garry made the callout in the cage during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan and explained why afterward. For as bold and cocky as Garry may be, he respects “Wonderboy” and knows what a win against him could do for his career.
“I love ‘Wonderboy.’ He’s an amazing person, he’s an amazing human, and he’s one of the best we’ve ever seen in the striking department in UFC history,” Garry said. “Every single time I watch him fight I get pissed when I see someone shoot a double-leg on him. I’m not gonna do that. … I want to prove to the world that I am the best striker in the division, I’m one of the best strikers of all time. To do that, you have to go out and beat people of that caliber. And ‘Wonderboy’ is that guy.
“So for me to go out there and beat ‘Wonderboy,’ to finish him, to get a decision, whatever the win is – to have my hand raised against that man absolutely means I am the new generation of strikers in the UFC, and it is inarguable that I’m the best striker in the division.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 292.
