UFC fight night in Qatar was meant to showcase Ian Garry’s rise, but it ended with a scuffle against Khamzat Chimaev behind the scenes.
The Irishman put on an impressive performance on Sunday in the co-main event defeating Belal Muhammad and staking his claim as a top contender in the division.
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However, things turned sour backstage when he crossed paths with UFC hothead, and middleweight champion, Chimaev.
Still riding the high from his victory, Garry approached Chimaev to show respect – and got shoved hard in return. Security rushed in before the situation escalated.
“That’s just childish. You’re supposed to be a champion in this sport,” Garry can be heard saying after the incident.
When asked about the clash at the post-fight media session, Garry laid out his version of events.
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“I went up to [Arman] Tsarukyan,” Garry said.
“I congratulated him. I went to Khamzat, I said, ‘Hey champ, what’s up? When are we going to see you back?’
“He goes, ‘I don’t know, brother, whenever. Smash.’ Cool, sweet, slaps me on the back, I’m like, alright, cool.
“Security guy gets in front of us, I’m like, ‘We literally were just cool with each other, he’s not going to fight me.’ And then that childish energy comes out.
“‘Yeah, f**k you, brother, f**k you,’ boom, he tries to push me. I just turned around and went, ‘You’re meant to be a champion of this sport. You’re a child. You’re taking away from your friend’s win over here.
“How about you calm down, slow down, and have a bit of respect for your friend over here rather than trying to steal the headlines.”
Tsarukyan sends warning after take down | 01:47
Garry then presented his theory for why the champ lashed out.
“You want the honest truth? It’s little d**k energy,” Garry said.
“‘I need to show the world I’m tough.’ You’re the champion of the world. No one needs to see you be tough. You don’t need to have these anger management issues. Just be a man.
“Sorry. I’ll get him one day.”
At the post-fight press conference for Tsarukyan, Chimaev alleged Garry had hit him from behind, but video clips circulating show no such incident.
“Don’t punch somebody from behind, you know. He punched, like slapping my back,” said Chimaev.
Garry could be seen putting his hand on Chiamev’s shoulder, though definitely not striking him.
“If you want to show respect, respectfully touch somebody. That’s what I tell him, touch somebody respectful. But he came like that to make some hype,” Chimaev continued.
“Like, you know that guy, trying to be Conor [McGregor]. He never gonna be Conor. He’s a s**t fighter.”
Garry notched the biggest win of his career on Sunday, improving his record to 17-1. It was also his second straight victory since suffering his first career loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 last year.
That defeat came in a welterweight title eliminator, but Garry has steadily clawed his way back to be knocking on the door for a title shot.
Belal Muhammad, his latest victim, had been ranked second, raising immediate questions about whether Garry could be next in line for a shot at UFC gold.
The possibility of Garry fighting Chimaev in the future is not so far-fetched – but the Irishman says it won’t happen in the near future.
“Listen, I’m going to tell you the same story I tell everyone when I think about moving up to middleweight,” Garry said.
“I’ve trained in Kill Cliff, Florida. Everybody here knows Gregory Rodrigues. When I stand in front of that man, I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s not a good idea to move up to middleweight.’
“He is absolutely massive and when I look at that I’m like, I’m 28. Maybe when I’m 34, 35, and I’ve grown up and I’ve got a bit bigger, maybe my metabolism starts to slow down, I start to hit that hard.
“I could move up now and I’m absolutely going to be doing the same things I do. Smart, technical, elusive, fast, I could have success. But there’s a lot of people in this welterweight division that I need to beat and dominate.
“I want to do this GSP-style. I want to go through the division, dominate the division, beat every flash in the pan, beat every next No. 1 contender in the world, and dominate this division.
“I’m 28 years of age as of Monday this week. I have a decade of domination in this sport, I have no rush to move up to middleweight.”