Ian Machado Garry maintained his undefeated record at UFC 303 where he handed Michael “Venom” Page his first loss inside the Octagon.
The two dynamic welterweight strikers went the full three rounds in the main card opener where Garry’s takedowns and ground control proved to be the difference.
He received some criticism from fans for this performance after not backing up some of his words about how the striking battle would play out.
Garry’s been known to ruffle some feathers during his UFC tenure, not least during the build up to his fight with the veteran 170-pound competitor Neil Magny.
The two men met at UFC 292 last year where the rising contender said some things about Magny that didn’t really resonate with a lot of the fans.
Despite their previous tensions, there is no bad blood towards the Irishman at least from Magny’s point of view as has been clear in the past.
Neal Magny Praises Ian Garry For His ‘Smart’ & ‘Patient’ Performance At UFC 303
During a recent interview with James Lynch for InsideFighting, Magny spoke about his former opponent’s last outing.
The welterweight staple is set to return on August 24 where he looks to make it back-to-back wins since his loss to Garry when facing Michael Morales.
He believes, like many, that the clash between Garry and Page came right down to the wire where it was eventually decided by the slimmest of margins.
Yeah I watched it, it’s one of those fighters where it’s a tough call. When you have so much time to prepare for a fight, every move you make has to be very calculated where had one guy or the other slipped up one way or the other like had MVP [been] able to stuff one takedown, it would change the outcome of the fight. Had Ian Garry missed one takedown it could change the outcome of the fight, had MVP landed one more significant strike it could change the outcome of the fight so it was just one of those fights that was close going into it and anything can literally happen.
That fight literally came down to who made the least amount of mistakes. I mean even some of the takedowns that Ian Garry was able to score on MPV, it didn’t really come from like, ‘Oh I’m going to set up a shot with my strikes and feint and get in this way.’ It was off a caught kick or something like that and he took full advantage of it.
Where some fans criticized Garry for relying on his grappling skills to make the fight a more gruelling affair, Magny credited him for this.
He spoke about how when you’re up against an opponent like Page, doing anything other than keeping it simple can result in a rough awakening.
It was a very close fight I was definitely impressed with the grappling display that Ian Garry was able to pull out of that fight. I definitely tip my hat to the performance that Ian Garry. It was one of those fights that is very difficult to prepare for because if you go out there and try to do a little bit too much against MVP, you end up waking up looking at the ceiling so he fought a very smart fight, a very patient fight and was able to get it done.
