UFC welterweight star Ian Machado Garry cleared the air on some of the rumors surrounding his relationship with his wife — Layla Machado Garry — and why he chose to take her name as opposed to the more traditional approach.
Garry’s marriage has come under fire in recent months after Sean Strickland slammed Garry, believing that ‘The Future’ had willingly taken the name of his wife’s ex-husband. He even went so far as to suggest that she was still involved with her ex romantically — labeling Garry a “cuck” in the process.
The fact is, Machado is his wife’s maiden name from her mother’s side of the family and there is a very good reason why Garry decided to incorporate the name into his own.
“The truth is I only did it because I wanted my son and my stepson to really feel connected,” Garry said in an interview with CBS Sports. “I didn’t want them going through life with two separate surnames. I feel like there is a little bit of a disconnect. If you guys want to be brothers, I want to make sure you guys have that same connection.”
Another point of attack for Strickland was Garry’s unusually close relationship with his wife’s ex-husband — Richard Cullen — whom the couple regularly travels with. Cullen is a renowned sports nutritionist and was brought into Ian Garry’s camp by Layla Machado Garry in 2021.
“He’s an elite performance nutritionist and he’s really f*cking good at what he does,” Garry said. “To the point which we’ve done every single weight cut for the UFC and they’ve been easier every single time,” Garry said. “We’ve worked phenomenally together and I’m very proud of the work we’ve done.
“He’s also the father of my wife’s son. I never want to be a wedge between a father and a son. I never want that on my conscience. I know that we’re going on this adventure to travel the world. ‘Hey dude, want to travel the world, be my nutritionist and we can all do this together? You can come and see your son whenever you want.’ The two of them went to Disney this morning.”
Ian Machado Garry has no regrets over the way he has approached his opponents or his career
As an up-and-comer still trying to establish himself as a viable contender, Ian Garry’s brash and cocky style of selling fights will continue to invite some undesirable attention. Despite that, ‘The Future’ wouldn’t change anything about the way he has approached his opponents or his mixed martial arts career as a whole.
“I’m No. 10 in the world. I haven’t even touched the potential of where I know I’m going to get there. I haven’t touched the limelight of what I know is possible for my career. Yet I’m the most talked about fighter on this fight card. I was the most talked about fighter on the last fight card.
“I’m doing everything right in my way. There is nothing that went wrong other than people flipping the truth into lies and bullshit and running with it. The whole world right now is playing a game of Chinese whispers where they don’t actually know the f*cking truth.”
Ian Machado Garry returns to the Octagon this Saturday night, February 17 at UFC 298. He faces No. 8 ranked contender Geoff Neal as part of the event’s main card inside Anaheim’s Honda Center. Machado Garry enters the bout with a perfect record of 13-0 with six wins under the UFC banner.