Ian Machado Garry is eyeing three big names in 2024.
Garry (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) is already booked in a welterweight bout against Geoff Neal (15-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) at UFC 298 on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, Calif.
If he gets past Neal, the undefeated 26-year-old is setting his sights at the top. Garry wants a piece of former multiple-time title challenger Colby Covington (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC), as well as UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland (28-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC).
Garry’s callouts aren’t out of left field. Aspiring to become UFC welterweight champion, Covington very well could be in Garry’s path to gold. Covington criticized Garry for turning off the comments on his social media, and also recently expressed interest in fighting him when he appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show. Covington is coming off a loss to welterweight champion Leon Edwards at UFC 296.
“There is one guy that is a legitimate cuck, and I’ve called him out for that,” Covington told Carlson. “I found out that this had happened: The girl was selling a book called ‘WAG,’ which means ‘Wife And Girlfriend.’ So she was promoting that she had (both) a boyfriend and she had a husband.
“It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s pretty nasty behavior. … He was pretty angry. I think he probably wants to settle the differences in the octagon, and it just so happens I like to fight in the octagon. So if it needs to happen one day, I’d be honored to settle that.”
(“WAG” does indeed stand for “Wife And Girlfriend,” but the acronym, according to the BBC, was coined in a 2002 newspaper column to mean the “wives and girlfriends” of soccer players in the United Kingdom, such as David Beckham’s wife Victoria (aka Posh Spice). British tabloids covered the soccer matches in sports, and the WAGs in other parts of the paper. The term refers to a collective group – not a woman claiming to be one person’s wife and another person’s girlfriend, the way Covington chose to define it.)
Strickland also didn’t mince his words when it comes to Garry’s relationship with his wife, which Strickland says resulted in Garry threatening to sue him.
Strickland is scheduled to make his first title defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.
Dear diary …: Ian Machado Garry reveals 2024 hit list – and it’s stacked