Sean Strickland crossed the line with Ian Machado Garry.
Ireland’s undefeated 13-0 rising Welterweight superstar, Garry, has been a hot topic within the mixed martial arts (MMA) community since he reached Top 10 contender status. Unfortunately for Garry, the heat has been negative more than positive as he’s had his marriage and trash talk questioned by fans and fighters alike. The former Middleweight titleholder, Strickland, was one of the most prominent critics.
The pair of contenders currently compete in different divisions, making a potential match up unlikely and illogical. Despite that, Garry still intends and hopes to get his hands on “Tarzan” one day.
UFC preferably would want that to happen in the Octagon and not its Performance Institute.
“Listen, we can shoot shots at each other all day long,” Garry said at UFC 298 media day (h/t MMA Fighting). “Me and another bloke, but the minute he mentions — here’s the two things that I’ll point out to you. My wife was called a pedophile by Sean Strickland. No woman ever deserves to be called that, right? That’s the truth. My son, the people that follow Sean Strickland, commented on a couple of my photos at the very start of all this hate, saying, ‘Is the kid even his?’ I should never have to hear that.
“Those two things, they emotionally get me,” he continued. “I’ll get mine back. I’ll thump the f—king mouth off Sean Strickland one day and there’ll be nothing he can do about it. I’ll talk to him, I’ll dance on his face, I’ll do whatever I want because the truth is when we get locked into that cage one day, he’s never gonna be able to deal with me.”
Strickland has lost his UFC title in the time that followed his berating of Garry and his wife. Tasked with Dricus Du Plessis, Strickland lost a hard-fought split decision at UFC 297 last month (Jan. 20, 2024).
Meanwhile, Garry will return to action against an opponent he was supposed to face in his last time out, Geoff Neal. The pair were booked for UFC 292 in August 2023 until Neal was injured and replaced by Neil Magny, whom Garry defeated by unanimous decision. They now meet at UFC 298 this weekend (Sat., Feb. 17, 2024).
“The truth is I have a target on my back,” Garry said. “I have the ability to stand here and shoot shots at anyone I want because this is my job, and they have the opportunity in return. For me, when you attack people in my circle when they don’t deserve it, that’s out of line.
“Sean Strickland is not the f—king voice we should be listening to,” he continued. “He’s deeply, deeply indebted with trauma and he should just be silent and try to deal with his personal issues himself and that’s mainly where it came from.”
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 298 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
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