Ian Garry was born on November 17, 1997, in Portmarnock, Ireland.
Garryo had been practising boxing since he was eight years old. When Conor McGregor brought MMA to Ireland’s notice, he was motivated to attempt Judo in order to diversify his martial arts training.
At the age of 18, Ian Garry earned his black belt in judo. A few months later, he left school to concentrate on martial arts.
At the age of 19, he competed in his first amateur match. He concluded his amateur career in November 2018 with a 6-1 record, six finishes, and one decision defeat. He earned this record in amateur mixed martial arts over the course of a year.
In February 2019, he made his professional debut at Cage Warriors 101. Garry defeated James Sheehan by unanimous decision, winning the Fight of the Night award and signing a contract with the company.
Garry went on to win four more straight matches, and then competed taking against two-fight UFC veteran Rostem Akman at Cage Warriors 121. He won the bout in under 8 minutes, setting up a match for the Cage Warriors Welterweight Championship against Jack Grant at Cage Warriors 125. He ended up winning the match and the title via unanimous decision.
Ian Garry stated in July 2021 that he had signed a deal with the UFC. He made his professional debut on November 6, 2021. He ended up winning against Jordan Williams via first-round knockout at UFC 268.
In April 2022, Darian Weeks and Garry squared off at UFC 273. Garry won the match via unanimous decision.
At UFC 276 in July 2022, Ian Garry squared off against Gabriel Green. He ended up winning the match via unanimous decision.
At UFC 285 in March 2023, Song Kenan and Garry squared off. Garry was knocked out in the opening round but ended up winning the match via technical knockout in the third round.
In May 2023, Garry competed against Daniel Rodriguez at UFC on ABC 4. In the first round, he TKO’d the opponent with a head kick and ground and pound. With this victory, he was given the Performance of the Night award.
On August 19, 2023, Garry was supposed to compete against Geoff Neal at UFC 292. However, Neil Magny took Geoff Neal’s spot when he withdrew for unspecified health reasons.
On February 26, 2022, Garry wed Layla Anna-Lee in Las Vegas. Since Ian Garry has been competing at Cage Warriors in 2021, they have been dating. She was there when he won his first professional title and has supported him fiercely ever since.
Layla revealed she was expecting the couple’s first child in April 2022. In October 2022, the couple had a son together named Leandro. Layla also has a son named Lucas from her previous marriage, and the couple co-parents him at times.
After his match at UFC 276, Ian revealed to the commentators that he had made the decision to adopt a new name. He wanted to take up his wife’s maiden name ‘Machado.’
During the broadcast, Jon Anik and Megan Olivi could be heard saying:
“Name change for Ian Machado Garry late in the week. What can you tell us on that?”
Olivi replied: “That’s correct. His wife , Layla, is Brazilian and Machado was her last name. She has a son who also has Machado in his name.”
“And now that she’s expecting a child with Gary, they wanted to make sure that the brothers had a name in common. So that they felt they were all one big family with co-parenting.”
“So they all added it to their name so that none feels left out”
Garry is presently working out with master coach Henri Hooft at Kill Cliff FC in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Phil Daru and Jose Rojas are two master strength and conditioning coaches on Garry’s team.
Since Ian Garry is from the same place as Conor McGregor, he has always been an inspiration for Ian. The two first met when Garry was working at the upscale clothing store Louis Copeland, and McGregor entered as a client.
Following in Conor McGregor’s footsteps, Ian Garry dominated the English organisation Cage Warriors before entering the UFC. That wasn’t an entirely random occurrence, as Garry claimed McGregor’s ascent to fame was what first drew him to MMA.
Garry stated: “Conor changed the game in MMA. He brought so many eyes to the sport. If I can do something similar, then that’s a win. He was the reason I’m in MMA, you know what I mean?”
“His rise was the reason why MMA got huge in Dublin, in Ireland. He’s the reason I walked into an MMA gym and if I can bring eyes to the UFC and I can put people in gyms because they wanna be like me or they wanna do it because they see me enjoy it and put on a show, then amazing. That’s a win.”