Ian Machado Garry doubts his haters will decrease with another win.
Garry (13-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) meets Geoff Neal (15-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) on Saturday at UFC 298 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) from Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
There’s been plenty of online drama and negative headlines surrounding Garry, who was scheduled to face Vicente Luque in December at UFC 296 before pneumonia forced him out of the welterweight bout. Garry, 26, is ready to get back in the octagon this weekend but doesn’t expect the public sentiment toward him to shift, regardless of his performance.
“I don’t believe any performance that I can go out there and put on is going to silence people,” Garry told TNT Sports. “There will always be haters. The more success you have, the more haters there are. That’s just unfortunately the way the online community is right now, and it’s ridiculous. But, am I going to use that fuel to go out there and put on a performance, to maybe rile them up and f*ck them off a little more then, yeah, why not?
“Why not get under their skin a little bit more and get my hand raised? Why not go out there and body Geoff Neal and stand over his body and just look at everyone around the stadium and see people’s faces? And I just go out there, and I just stand there and go, ‘This is what I do. This is what I do best.'”
The likes of Colby Covington and former middleweight champion Sean Strickland have taken aim at Garry and his personal life. The brash Irishman said everyone has benefitted from mentioning his name, and he doesn’t expect that to change as he gains more success.
“The truth is the MMA community should be thankful because everybody’s videos that were posted, that had my name on it, got much more traction, more views,” Garry said. “Everyone posted about it, everyone talked about it, and the truth is, I guarantee you, go back and look at your videos. Those videos at that time got the most views.
“And you had people talking about me, talking out their ass, not fact checking, not doing anything. The truth is, I’m still going to show up to do my job this time. I’m going to get my hand raised. I’m going up to 14-0 and if anyone has a problem or anyone has anything to say, I couldn’t care less.”
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