The upcoming UFC 296 on December 16th is poised to witness the return of the rising Irish star Ian Garry. This anticipated event marks his pursuit of a 14th career victory, yet it won’t come without a fierce challenge.
Standing firm in Garry’s path to glory is the formidable No. 8 welterweight contender, Vicente Luque.
Surprisingly, Ian Garry and Vicente Luque are teammates. Both have trained at Kill Cliff FC with other well-known UFC stars like Brendan Allen and Michael Chandler.
But Garry has run into some trouble with Kill Cliff and other gyms such as Team Renegade. Current welterweight champion Leon Edwards trains at the latter.
Garry stated in October that he had received a request to quit Team Renegade and implied that Edwards had made the request. Gym officials swiftly refuted Garry’s accusations that Edwards was ‘weak-minded’ and scared of some rivalry on the mats. They pointed out that Garry was “not adding to the team’s culture” and so requested him to depart.
It appears that Ian Garry’s arrogant demeanor and “nomad” training style have irritated his team memberss, with one major expectation.
In an appearance on The MMA Hour, Michael Chandler expressed admiration for Garry’s potential while cautioning him against distractions. He said that Garry has a chance of becoming a world champion in the future as long as he maintains his composure and stays out of drama.
Chandler stated: “If he keeps his head on his shoulders, he could be champion one day for sure. But he’s got a tough test ahead of him in Vicente. Both of those guys I would consider teammates, probably Vicente more because I’ve trained with Vicente for years and years. Ian is now bouncing around a little bit [too]. We’ll see how it works out for him.”
He went on to say, “He’s very much a ‘me’ kind of fighter. Whereas I’ve always been a ‘we’ kind of fighter. Focus on the team, more than myself. He’s more ‘I know exactly what to do, I step inside the cage’ kind of guy… I don’t think he’s a bad dude. He picked Conor to beat me I think, so that’s good. He’s his childhood hero man, so me and Ian can have that banter back and forth, it’s all good man.”
It will be interesting to see how Ian Garry is affected by the recent backlash when he returns to the Octagon later this month for UFC 296.