Ian Machado Garry has detailed how he was confronted by an aggressive fan at UFC 285, moments after winning via knockout on Saturday.
Irishman Garry stopped Song Kenan in the third round at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, recovering from an early knockdown to secure the win and remain unbeaten.
The welterweight contest was Garry’s only fight of the night, but the 25-year-old was almost involved in a second when he was confronted by a fan who claimed to be a fighter.
Discussing footage of the incident on The MMA Hour, Garry said: “I just hear this guy shouting and screaming, coming through where all the cars were [at the T-Mobile Arena car park].
“I don’t know if he’s off his face or what he’s doing, but then he just bumped into me. I just turned around to him and went, ‘Hey, relax,’ and he goes, ‘Or what?!’ I just start laughing and looking at him like, ‘Sorry?’
“[He said:] ‘I’m a fighter, I do this s***!’ [I said:] ‘Oh, really, really? You do this s***?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, you don’t want any of this smoke!’
“Then his fat little mate just stood there in his f***ing pink blazer, going: ‘Yeah, you don’t want any of this.’ I’m like, ‘Ha!’”
Garry was with his wife, child, and the rest of his team when the incident occurred.
“Layla is just standing in front of me with the baby going, ‘Ian, if you do anything, you’ll lose your visa, you won’t be able to fight here,’” Garry added. “I’m eyeballing this guy at this point, and Layla is like, ‘Is he moving?’ [I said:] ‘No, and if he moves a step closer, I’m going to f***ing kick him in the balls.’
“I start emptying my pockets, because the way he looked, it looked like he was on [cocaine] or something, because he wasn’t thinking. So, I just slowly empty my pockets, trying to pass it back, because I was just going to drop [him] and go if he came close to me.
“I can hear people going, ‘Does this guy f***ing know who he’s talking to?’ There’s no way he knew, because if he did, he would have s*** himself.”
Garry added that he has never been involved in a fight outside of the ring, and the Irishman managed to avoid such an altercation on Saturday.
“I’ve never been in a fight outside the Octagon, because I’m too smart,” he said, “but it took everything in me, with the way he was eyeballing me, not to go at him. It was like he wanted to kill me the way he looked at me, and I was like, ‘I’m going to put you unconscious if you take one step forward. One step forward or say one more word, I’m going to end you.’
“But I had to keep my cool. I’m sure he went off and had a great night.”
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