After a bloody online war of words, Ian Machado Garry and Michael ‘Venom’ Page settled their scores in the cage at UFC 303. Now, while the Irishman picked a comfortable win after putting his grappling to good use. While this extended his winning streak to 15-0-0, a decision victory has left MVP doubting the former’s chances against the cream of the crop.
Speaking to The MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, the former Bellator lightweight got real talking about Garry going against a proper striker like the welterweight champion, Leon Edwards or Shavkat Rakhmonov. He believes that the Irishman would get pieced apart against some of the better strikers in the division.
He said:
“If that’s the game you’re going to go when you get a decent striker then Leon (Edwards) is going to kill you anyway then Shavkat (Rakhmonov) is going to kill you anyway. There’s a few guys in there that I just don’t see him surpassing… I don’t see him progressing to the top. I think he is talented enough to always be around there. Top 10-, top 5 and then he’ll keep losing out to certain people but he is still talented.”
Ahead of the fight, the surging Irishman had envisioned himself to defeat the unorthodox Page. But once the bell rang and the Brit started rocking back and forth on his toes, getting in thudding jabs and clubbing rear hands, Garry realized that it was going to be a long night for him.
Consequently, the 26-year-old outpointed the veteran Page to win, which according to the Brit is not letting Garry go anywhere.
He believes that such performances will not get him past well-seasoned strikers like the welterweight champion, Leon Edwards or the boogeyman of the division, Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Meanwhile, one of Garry’s countryman and UFC talent came out to defend Garry amidst the raining criticisms.
UFC bantamweight slaps back at MVP
While it seems like the Brit is still a bit salty about losing his very second fight in the promotion, not all are siding with the veteran kickboxer on this one.
Fellow Irishman and UFC bantamweight, Caolan Loughran weighed his thoughts on the 26-year-old, negating the unfair blame.
While Loughran has never been a fan of Garry, his improvements in UFC 303 have him think highly of Garry. In an exclusive to with InsideFightingm, he said,
“He’s getting a lot of stick for his performance against ‘MVP.’ F*ck fighting ‘MVP.’ He’s a nightmare! Until you have him in front of you, you haven’t sparred or trained with someone like him. Now, when you put him on his back, he’s crap. But it’s just getting him on his back is a nightmare.”
Sticking out for his countryman, Loughran again proved that the Irish are not here just to hang around but like the great Conor McGregor said, they’re here to take over.
