Ian Machado Garry is very confident that he’s going to shock the world and dethrone Islam Makhachev to become welterweight champion in the UFC 330 main event.
While he’s staying laser focused on the fight ahead of him on Saturday, the Irish welterweight addressed the current state of the welterweight division where there are a number of fighters all jockeying for the next shot at the title. That includes rising star Michael Morales, who is scheduled to weigh in as the backup for the UFC 330 title fight but Garry says ultimately there’s really only one person actually deserving of a title shot after he gets through Makhachev to become champion.
“Listen, I called him last week, we chatted about it but there is only one,” Garry said during UFC 330 media day. “There is only one person who has earned or deserves the title shot after this fight and it’s Carlos Prates. All the other guys haven’t done enough.
“Carlos Prates has earned it. Nobody else in the entire division has earned it. They all need to fight at least one more fight. Prates is coming off two fights against two guys that have never been finished and he did it in insane fashion. I whooped his ass for 24 minutes and I did it on three weeks’ notice. So if he wants to give me three or four months [to get ready], he knows what’s going to happen. He’ll be able to sleep well after the next one.”
Prates is undoubtedly in the mix to earn the next title shot, especially after he ran roughshod over a pair of former champions in Leon Edwards and Jack Della Maddalena in his past two appearances in the octagon.
Another name that is undoubtedly going to get mentioned should Garry become champion is Shavkat Rakhmonov, who handed “The Future” the only loss of his career when they met back in 2024. That win was supposed to propel Rakhmonov into a title fight against then champion Belal Muhammad but a knee injury not only knocked him out of that matchup but it’s kept him sidelined for the better part of the past two years.
Right now there’s still no word on when Rakhmonov could potentially return to action but Garry definitely has his sights set on that rematch.
“Shavkat Rakhmonov whenever he comes back, again I wish him recovery, someone told me yesterday that there’s been some hardship in his life,” Garry said. “I wish him well. I wish him good health. I hope that everything goes well for him because there’s more things important than fighting and family and long term health is far more important than fighting.
“Shavkat, I wish you all the best. But when he comes back to that octagon, there’s only one person he’s fighting and it’s me. So he’ll jump the queue whenever he comes back because that’s the fight that I want.”
Outside of Prates, Rakhmonov and Morales, Garry also acknowledged the possibility that a win over Makhachev at UFC 330 could set up an immediate rematch.
As the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, who is currently riding a remarkable 16-fight win streak, Makhachev has built up enough good will that a loss on Saturday would still warrant him a chance at revenge.
Garry isn’t against that idea either but ultimately he believes running it back with Makhachev really depends on how the fight plays out at UFC 330 and then he’ll consider the immediate rematch.
“I think let’s focus on beating him once and then we can focus on beating twice,” Garry said. “But it all depends on the fashion. If I go out there and scalp him in two minutes, do you want to see me fight him again straight away? That’s just the way it is. If we have a back and forth war like he had with [Alexander] Volkanovski, it probably would warrant a rematch.
“But also, there’s many other challenges here that are exciting at the same time. Let’s get through Saturday night, let’s get the win and then we’ll see in what fashion I get the victory and if there’s a rematch on the cards. But I wouldn’t be against it. I think he’s earned enough to do it. But let’s get through Saturday night first.”