Ian Machado Garry is eyeing up a potential opportunity to train with Conor McGregor when he returns to Ireland later this year.
The Dublin native has been living in Florida to train at Sanford MMA, which was recently rebranded as Kill Cliff FC, since signing with the UFC last summer. But he is planning to take a breath and head to the UK with his TV host wife Layla Anna-Lee as they prepare to welcome their first son in the next few months.
He raced to 10-0 as a professional with three UFC wins within nine months, knocking out Jordan Williams and taking unanimous decision wins over Darian Weeks and Gabe Green. And now focus will shift in the Machado household to their impending new arrival, with plans in place to head back to London, where Garry's wife is from.
While he is in the UK, Garry will be just a short hop away from his home country, where he hasn't set foot since a brief Christmas visit to see family. And with McGregor recently getting back on the mats after recovering from a broken leg, Garry plans to finally work with his idol, who inspired him to pursue his MMA dreams during his astronomical rise to gold in two divisions.
"There's no way any time that man posts about me or comments on my fights that I'm not going to be excited," Garry explained in an exclusive chat with Mirror Fighting . "He's someone we sat around staying up for late nights with friends to watch his fights.
"All of the press conferences, the build-up to all the fights, we were so emotionally invested in his fights. I'll never forget those moments, Mendes, Aldo, I remember where I was for every single one.
"It will always be amazing that my name is coming out of his mouth. That's special to me, and the fact is that potentially when I come home to Ireland we could train together, I would love. Even if we just sat down and talked it would be awesome, I'm just a fan of his, and I always will be."
Garry's son will be born within the coming months, which likely rules him out of a number of big upcoming cards. He has indicated an interest in fighting in Paris this September, but that would likely arrive too soon for him, given how involved he plans to be with his first born.
But he will stay in training and remain ready for major opportunities whenever the UFC decide they want him out again. While he has proved to be a divisive character since making his debut, he impressed fans with an utterly dominant victory over the gritty 29-year-old Green in his last outing.
"Some people think I don't understand or hear the fans that much," Garry said. "But have you ever heard me after my performances? I'm the one who says all of that stuff, I'm the one in the ring and I'm also the one criticising myself more than anybody.
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"I can sit here and say that was absolutely one of my best performances to date and one of the best performances of my career, it's because it's true. I'm proving my inner violence a little bit more, putting those beautiful combinations, staying pretty on the outside and hitting someone hard.
"There were a lot of times in that fight where I felt like I could have finished it, but I was enjoying myself and there were people who paid good money to sit in those seats, or stayed up until all hours at home, to watch me fight. I want to put on a show, I want to hit someone hard enough that they start to wobble.
"Let's slow the brakes, slow down, I want to have fun! I'm just playing with my food over here, I absolutely love what I do, but I am the biggest critic of myself, over everybody.
"Straight after my fight I sat there and I spoke to my three cornermen and said 'here's what I have to do to get better'. I feel those feelings and I know exactly in that moment is when I should act on them.
"I messaged my strength and conditioning coach and I said 'you see this combination', I posted the one on Instagram, I said 'I want to be in this flow state for 15 minutes, turn the volume up and go for four minutes straight if I need to, kick and twist and everything."
