Ian Machado Garry has spoken out against the torrent of criticism he received in the past few months, notably from the UFC’s middleweight champion.

Former Cage Warriors champion Garry has been a hot topic in MMA circles in the past few months, owing to a series of unsubstantiated rumours regarding his personal life that were propagated by Strickland, as well as a host of trolls on the periphery of MMA media who spin yarns in return for precious YouTube views.

Strickland, though, was particularly vocal about elements of Garry’s life, including mentioning his family, and speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour on Monday, the Irishman had some words for Strickland — particularly after he had expressed his opposition to comments made by Dricus du Plessis regarding his own outside-of-the-cage life.

“I don’t personally care what happened in his childhood, what happened in his past that has him the way he is now,” Garry said of Strickland. “I don’t care what happened. Don’t attack and project your pain onto other people and other people’s families because you can’t deal with it correct.”

“The UFC has mental health [treatment plans] and ways to deal with athletes’ mental health,” he added. “Go talk to them and deal with it the way it should be dealt with. Get rid of it, release it, express it because to attack other people’s families and loved ones because you have childhood trauma is completely unfair.

|It’s inexcusable. That’s where I kind of sit there and feel sorry for him, but equally at the same point I don’t give a f*ck what happened in his childhood. Don’t speak in that manner about anybody else on the planet. Deal with your issues first.”

Garry, who fights Geoff Neal next month, also stated that he intends to fight Colby Covington this summer — but after that, a bout with Strickland, who he doesn’t believe will be champion by then, is an attractive opportunity.

“Whether it’s this year or next year, I’d love (to fight) Sean Strickland because any man, any person that mentions me and my family in that way, I’m going to get my hands on them,” he said. “In an ideal world, towards the end of the year, I don’t think Sean Strickland is going to be world champion. I believe there’s absolutely an opportunity to step into middleweight and give him a hurting, and maybe I’ll beat him so bad that he’ll forget all that childhood trauma, and he can thank me.”