Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry is looking for a little extra time in the cage later this month.
Former Cage Warriors champion Garry, who will seek to extend his unbeaten record to a perfect 15-0 (8-0 UFC) when he takes on former Bellator standout Michael ‘Venom’ Page on the main card of UFC 303 in Las Vegas in late June, has yet to go past three rounds in his time with the US-based fight promotion — and says that he wants a 25-minute timeframe for his upcoming bout with the Englishman.
“Just finished a really good training session, I’m feeling fresh, I’m feeling ready, I’m conditioned for five rounds so I’m going to get on the phone to Hunter Campbell and the UFC today,” said Garry in a recent post to social media.
“Let’s push for a five-round co-main for this. Let’s push it, this is a fight where we represent the Irish, MVP get ready for 25 minutes of pain,” he added.
Garry has gone five rounds once in his career; a unanimous decision win against Jack Grant in which he won the then-vacant Cage Warriors welterweight title in what proved to be his final bout with the European fight league.
Since then, Garry has scored three knockout finishes and four decisions in his UFC run — including a split decision win in his last outing against veteran fighter Geoff Neal back in February.
MVP, meanwhile, comes into the fight with around four weeks’ of preparation — a factor he has admitted is not ideal in recent media appearances. He also stated that ideally he would have preferred had the contest with Garry taken place at the UFC 304 card in Manchester.
Also, as things stand the Garry vs. MVP fight is not listed as the UFC 303 co-main (that goes to Jamahal Hill vs. Carlos Ulberg), so it would appear unlikely that the Dubliner will get his wish of appearing in the pay-per-view’s co-headline slot (for now, at least).