‘The Future’ says the more people seem to hate him online, the more fans, followers, and sales he gets.
Ian Garry is back, and he’s feeling more confident than ever coming into his UFC 298 fight against Geoff Neil on February 17th.
A case of pneumonia took Garry off UFC 296 in December, leading to this quick re-booking. It may have worked out for “The Future,” because at the time he was getting absolutely trashed by a segment of the MMA community. You couldn’t visit any news site without reports of training partners that hated him or fighters questioning the legitimacy of his marriage.
Garry seemed a bit overwhelmed by the situation at the time, but he’s back to his usual brash ways coming into UFC 298 media week.
“There’ll always be haters,” he said during an interview with TNT Sports. “The more successful you are the more haters there’ll be, that’s just unfortunately the way the online community is right now. And it’s ridiculous. But am I gonna use that fuel to go out there and put on performances, to maybe rile them up and piss them off even more? Yeah, why not?”
“The truth is, I’m getting more love than ever,” Garry added. “So what you’re seeing is a small minority of people online who are being bitter and aggressive and hurtful. Mainly the Sean Strickland followers, that’s mainly where it came from.”
“But every country I’ve been in since that point — America, England, Ireland, Brazil — I’m being recognized more, my merch sales have gone up, my followers have gone up, my ambassador deals have gone up. I’m raising the value of everything around me. And the truth is, the love I’m getting from people, I haven’t had a single bit of hate in public.”
Garry is just impressed at the level of interest he’s getting either way, considering he hasn’t even begun what he considers to be his real superstar run.
“I haven’t fought yet, I haven’t done the things I said I’m going to do,” he said. “I’m No. 10 in the world, I haven’t even gotten in and done what I’m gonna do. It’s coming, it’s coming, and I cannot wait to prove everybody wrong with all this negativity and all this bulls—. But just enjoying all the positive energy from everyone that I meet in public. And just enjoying the team around me.”
As for what’s next, we’ll have to wait for Ian to win on February 17th to find out. But he’s hoping to co-main alongside Conor McGregor when his fellow Irishman returns.
“The only rumor we hear is from the big man himself that he wants to fight June 29th, International Fight Week,” Garry said. “Now fingers crossed that gets made, because if that gets made I got the perfect co-main. And I think you guys can guess who it will be. He’s a bit of a clown, if you want any hints.”