Ian Machado Garry has made no bones about who he is rooting for in next month’s Joaquin Buckley vs. Colby Covington bout.

Unbeaten Dubliner Garry was scheduled to fight surging welterweight contender Buckley next month but it was confirmed last week that he was being removed from the fight and instead placed into a top contender matchup with fellow undefeated 170-pounder Shavkat Rakhmonov as the UFC scrambled to source a replacement for the Kazakh’s original opponent at UFC 310 in Las Vegas, champion Belal Muhammad who withdrew from the fight citing a foot complaint.

Instead of Garry, it was confirmed that Buckley will fight Colby Covington who will make his return to the cage for the first time since he was defeated last December by then-champ Leon Edwards — and given Garry’s dogged pursuit of a bout of his own with Covington which ultimately came to nothing (so far, at least), the Irishman has made clear that he hopes Buckley gets his hand raised when they meet in the Octagon in a few weeks’ time.

“Joaquin Buckley, I am behind you 100 percent of the way,” Garry noted in a post to Instagram. “Go out and put that man to sleep. Please and thank you. Do it for me because he’s not able to do it against me.”

And speaking to MMA reporter James Lynch via MiddleEasy, Buckley sent his gratitude to Garry for his support.

“The only person that shouted out was Ian Garry,” Buckley said. “And I agree with him and his frustration … I took the opportunity once the fight was given to me. You can’t talk crazy and you can’t talk reckless and not show up for the things that you say [you will].

“For Colby to be out here, regardless of if we know it’s an act or not, you gotta pay for the words that you say. And I really believe with Colby Covington, he should have took this fight with Ian Garry when I believe it was offered but he never did.

“Ian Garry definitely gave me a shout out to really go an knock Colby Covington out and we’ll see each other later. Shout out to Ian Garry for that.”