UFC star Ian Garry's mother warned him that becoming the next Conor McGregor "is not a f***ing plan" in a heartfelt letter that lit a fire under him to push on in his MMA career.
The former Cage Warriors champion is 8-0 as a professional, and landed himself in the UFC's welterweight division within just three years of his debut. But he didn't have his family's support when he decided to drop out of university to pursue the sport without having had a fight.
Garry decided to take up a job cleaning windows in Dublin, where he would work a full-time schedule while training on the side at Team KF in Swords. He quickly managed to turn his boxing skills into a rounded MMA game, and made his professional debut in 2019 after going 6-1 as an amateur.
He defeated James Sheehan in a short-notice bout on Cage Warriors, and proceeded to fight his way to a welterweight title opportunity. When it came down to it, he was able to comfortably defeat Jack Grant for the belt, and secure his spot in the UFC at the age of just 23.
It was then that he revealed his mother's letter, which she slid under his door after he made the decision to drop out of university. "Ian, taking a year out to figure out what you're going to do is stupid," Garry's mother said in the note, which the Irishman revealed in a documentary last year.
"I will not support someone who gives up on themselves and takes the easy way out. Being the next Conor McGregor is not a f***ing plan!"
It now seems that he very well could be heading on the path to becoming just that, although he'll need to have made big improvements from his debut against Jordan Williams. Last November at UFC 268 Garry landed a stunning first round knockout of Williams, but struggled early and was clipped on a number of occasions.
He has the support of McGregor, who told Mirror Fighting this week: "I wish him well. He's doing all the right things, Ian is. He's hitting all the right buttons. But he hits the button of the chin best so I'm excited to see him back in there representing Ireland."
And having that backing from his idol means the world to Garry, who has only met the former two-weight world champion once when he was in secondary school and McGregor visited a shop in Dublin where he was working.
But they are now pals, with the top fighter sending his countryman messages of both public and private support. "The other day, I went on Twitter to post something," Garry said. "I just quickly looked at my DMs and I saw the message he sent me privately after the fight.
"I just sat there and I laughed, I was like 'that's f***ing mad, that's crazy' because it was just a message that was thoughtful. It wasn't like 'congrats Iano, well done', it was one where he sat there and he meant it and that was f***ing awesome that was unreal.
"I'm still a fight fan that grew up watching Conor fight, watching these UFC events with my mates in their house or on holidays. I was so excited for these fights so for me it was just awesome and it's an incredible experience to have someone you've looked up to and had so much excitement about message you and say congrats and how grateful he was that I mentioned him.
"He says it helped him with his mentality and recovery, that was awesome. I'm excited for Conor to be back and they'll put us on a card together and we'll f***ing takeover - maybe, maybe, they might do Dublin."
He faces Darian Weeks tonight at UFC 273, having relocated from Dublin to Florida, where he trains with Sanford MMA; one of the top gyms in the world. He will be competing alongside teammates Gilbert Burns and Mickey Gall, who face Khamzat Chimaev and Mike Malott respectively.
Garry is planning on another big finish, but has promised that he won't be rushing to emulate McGregor, who was UFC champion within five fights, or six for undisputed. The legendary fighter was 27 when he won his first title, four years older than Garry is now.
"I have an awesome team behind me," Garry said ahead of his sophomore UFC outing. "I have a lot of people who I trust, and whose opinions matter to me and that is inevitably where decisions will be made - if we were to go earlier, later, if a fight was offered.
Are you excited for Ian Garry's return to the cage this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"When I get offered a contract I sit down with my team and I say 'right, here's the guy, are you all happy with this?' And they'll say 'yes'. Because I'm going to accept it, so they need to tell me if they have any concerns, at the end of the day it's my decision, no one can force me to do anything I don't want to do.
"But everyone can help me and give me their opinion - that's what you have a team for and that's what will make me better than everyone. I've said I'm better than everyone and I do think differently and smarter.
"For me, the reason I said I wanted to take time after the last fight was because I'm in no rush to be the best. It's inevitable that I'm going to get to that point, that I'm going to be that good.
"But the longer it takes me to build myself up, build my arsenal and have everything ready and locked and loaded to go and have the knowledge and experience pushing and pushing, that's only going to make me more dangerous.
"If I fight three times a year for the next three years, I'll get nine fights in the UFC, which is a lot of f***ing fights! I'm going to show people that I'm active, I work hard and I show up every time and then when I feel like I'm ready and I've hit that point I'll go 'right, let's lash this out of it', I'll fight five or six times a year if I can."
Watch Ian Garry take on Darian Weeks at UFC 273: Volkanovski vs. The Korean Zombie on Saturday April 9, live on BT Sport 1.
Coverage starts from 1am, with early prelims on UFC FIGHT PASS starting at 11pm.
