Henry Cejudo advises Ian Machado Garry to embrace heel role before UFC 296

Henry Cejudo thinks the UFC could use another star in Ian Machado Garry.

Undefeated Garry (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was already gaining popularity after climbing through the welterweight ranks, but his antics have caused a lot of that love to turn into heat as of late.

Garry’s pre-fight buildup with Neil Magny at UFC 292 wasn’t well received by fans. Garry’s dominant win over Magny was overshadowed by his comments in which he accused his opponent of being a child abuser. Garry also printed T-shirts sporting his original opponent Geoff Neal’s arrest mugshot, which also caused controversy.

“If Ian Garry can use a lot of what is going on right now in his life, in his career, if he can just chain that in and turn it into a storyline where he becomes a heel, I think he’ll be OK,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “I just don’t know. Every time I talk to somebody about Ian Garry, he’s like, ‘Yeah, man. He’s like naive. He’s somewhat of a dork.’ He means well. He wants to be famous, but it’s just the wrong timing.”

Garry could catapult himself into top contention if he gets past Vicente Luque (22-9-1 MMA, 15-5 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 296 main-card opener. From being no longer welcomed to Team Renegade, to his response to Luque getting baptized, Garry has been the subject of many negative headlines.

But Cejudo hopes Garry pulls off the win.

“Ian Garry, I’m actually cheering for you,” Cejudo said. “I’m kind of jumping ship now a little bit, and I like Vicente. Vicente is represented by Ali (Abdelaziz). I think the more that we have characters, the more that we have people that are – let’s call a spade a spade – that are white, that could fight, and have a mouthpiece, it brings a lot of numbers. It draws a lot of numbers. Conor McGregor has proven that.”

UFC 296 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN2 and early prelims on ESPN+.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 296.