UFC Qatar’s Ian Garry blasts idea of Kamaru Usman getting next Welterweight title shot: ‘He’s f—king irrelevant’
Ian Machado Garry is not impressed with Islam Makhachev’s attempt to set up a title fight against aging former champion Kamaru Usman rather than one of the young hungry dogs at 170.
Makhachev, Khabib, Usman, and their manager have all been talking up “The Nigerian Nightmare” as a worthy first title defense for Islam, despite Usman only having one win in the past four years. That doesn’t erase Kamaru’s five title defenses at 170 or his record-setting 15 fight win streak in the division, they say.
But granting No. 8 ranked Usman a title shot would leave No. 2 through 7 in the lurch, and that makes No. 6 ranked Ian Machado Garry angry. Garry is about to fight No. 2 ranked Belal Muhammad at UFC Qatar, and he wants that title shot with a win.
“Khabib and his team are very smart, and they are very intelligent at choosing fights and making interesting matchups,” Garry told TNT Sports. “Kamaru Usman is f–king irrelevant in the welterweight division right now. And excuse my language, but that’s a fact. He’s a has been. And yes, at one point in time, he was arguably the greatest welterweight of all time. He’s not close now.”
“I think Khabib and that whole fight team, they know how to spin the wording to build a fight. But there’s no interest, no fan wants to see that fight. They wanna see him versus me. They wanna see him versus Shavkat [Rakhmonov]. They wanna see Islam versus Prates and Morales. They wanna see the new generation of this welterweight division.”
“When you’ve got someone who’s pushing 40 years of age and is nearly No. 10 in the world? He’s irrelevant,” Garry continued. “So I think that’s just Islam trying to get that 17th consecutive win against an easy opponent, someone who was at one point in time somebody but now is just trying to maintain relevance. So I don’t wanna say anything disrespectful to Islam and his team, but I think it’s a cop out.”
“The champion should face the No. 1 challenger. And Kamaru Usman isn’t close to that.”
Garry will have his chance to make a statement in the cage when he fights Belal Muhammad in Doha, Qatar on Saturday November 22nd.
