Though their paths might not be crossing in the way that he had hoped, there is no love lost between Ian Machado Garry and Colby Covington. The undefeated Irishman has spent a fair few months of 2024 going back-and-forth with the former interim champion.

Covington was the opponent that he wanted to face at UFC 303 in June which would have been the perfect co-main event to Conor McGregor's return against Michael Chandler. Instead, Garry would get the main card opener slot against the former Bellator star Michael "Venom" Page which he won to remain undefeated.

Garry agreed to fight Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Tampa on December 14, admitting recently that the fight didn't excite him but no one ranked above him would take the match-up. When Belal Muhammad withdrew from his UFC 310 title defense, Garry replaced him to face Shavkat Rakhmonov this Saturday whilst Covington stepped in to clash with Buckley the following week.

In a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Garry reacted to Covington refusing to fight him only to accept a fight with "New Mansa" instead for the same date that the Irishman was originally targeting.

I was seething, how do you think I feel? Because I’ve been screaming and shouting about fighting that man from the rafters," Garry said. "This man’s made videos about me, my wife, my kids – talking about all this s***. And here’s this man avoiding me like the plague, and then the second I book in against the scariest man in the division, he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll fight in Florida.’

"It just proves, it just shows that he’s a coward, that he wants nothing to do with me," Garry continued. "The truth is I already know I’ve beaten him. I know I’ve already mentally beaten him. He’s weak. He’s an absolute coward.