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Rising UFC welterweight Ian Garry has his sights set on those above him for his next fight, but he doesn’t see one former champion as a likely candidate.

Garry extended his perfect professional record to 15-0 last weekend at UFC 303, where he recorded his eighth triumph on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage since signing in 2021.

After climbing the ranks with victories over Neil Magny at UFC 292 last August and Geoff Neal this past February at UFC 298, the former Cage Warriors champion was forced to turn his gaze to a figure below him in the pecking order to secure an outing during International Fight Week.

The Irishman opened the June 29 pay-per-view main card against Michael “Venom” Page, a former Bellator standout who debuted successfully at UFC 299 earlier this year.

Despite some backing “MVP’s” unique striking to be the difference, Garry edged the Londoner out for a decision win inside the T-Mobile Arena. While the result hasn’t seen the Dubliner climb the ranks, it should see him matched against a top contender next time out.

When it comes to who, though, “The Future” doesn’t see the former champ sitting inside the top five as an option…

Garry Predicts Usman Won’t Want To Fight ‘Someone So Young & Dangerous’

During a post-fight interview with TNT Sports’ Caroline Pearce in Las Vegas, Garry looked ahead to what could await him upon his return to the cage following UFC 303.

The Irishman has been vocal in calling out fellow undefeated contender Shavkat Rakhmonov since his win over Page. And Garry explained that preference by suggesting both Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman will likely “run.”

“Colby’s never taking the fight. He’s running scared. … After (UFC 303), he’s like, ‘Yeah, f*ck that, see you later.’ He’s jumping on someone’s rented yacht, acting like it’s his,” Garry said. “Look, there’s Usman, one of the greatest champions we’ve ever seen. I believe he’s gonna run scared and he’s not gonna f*cking make the call either. He doesn’t want to fight someone so young and dangerous.

“I just have to see how the rest of the division plays out now,” Garry continued. “I’m in the driving seat. There’s only a couple of people I can fight that are gonna be above me.”

Garry and Usman briefly trained under the same roof, with the Dubliner spending time at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, where “The Nigerian Nightmare” splits his time with Trevor Wittman’s facility.

The former champ hasn’t directly addressed a potential fight with Garry in the aftermath of UFC 303. He did, however, assess how far “The Future” is from the title, noting he could be two fights away given the names that still sit above him in the rankings.

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• Read More: Ian Garry Plans Backup Role For Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad At UFC 304: ‘Dan Ige Stepped In…Anything Can Happen’

Continue Reading Ian Garry Doesn’t Expect Kamaru Usman To Be An Option Post-UFC 303: ‘I Believe He’s Going To Run Scared’ at MMA News.

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Haters Begone
| BJPenn.com

Adesanya is returning to the UFC with a new outlook on fighting and a renewed faith in the unique style that carried him to the top of the sport.

Israel Adesanya is set to return at UFC 305 on August 17th against middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. It’s been a minute since “The Last Stylebender” has fought — 11 months, which is a long stretch considering Izzy fit his last three fights into the same amount of time.

In a new interview, Adesanya says the break was essential to regaining focus on what he wanted to do in this final phase of his fight career.

“The hiatus was definitely needed,” he told Sias Du Plessis. “Because physically, mentally, even spiritually, I just needed a break from not just the fights but from the training camps and the constant rigmarole we put our bodies through as warriors. So it was good for me to just unplug from the game.”

“I’ve learned a lot in the time I’ve been away. I’ve always been a patient guy if you’ve actually paid attention to what I’m doing, but I’ve got more patience now, more clarity. And I’m sure of what I wanna achieve in this this last chapter of my game.”

While Adesanya is stepping right back into a title fight against Du Plessis in Perth, Australia, he said he’s not driven by a desire to win the belt back.

“I’m the two-time UFC middleweight champion,” he said. “To make it three times, that’ll be nice, but it’s not really the main goal. For me, it’s about beating warriors from different codes, different nations, great fighters like Dricus, take them out, put them on my record, and move on to the next one until I’m done. That’s what it’s about.”

“The belt, it was always like, yeah, definitely be a UFC champ, but to get there was more the journey. I was just enjoying beating people up. So I’m back there. I’m just gonna enjoy beating people up and the belt will come, and it’ll stay. And eventually I’ll let it go.”

When discussion turned to how he’d handle the physicality and strength of Dricus Du Plessis, Adesanya didn’t seem concerned.

“I fought the largest middleweight, Alex Pereira, and I knocked him out,” he said. “How am I gonna deal with Dricus’ uniqueness? It’s just be unique myself. Be unique to who I am.”

“Never again will I ever stray away from my style or my flow just because I wanna do something different or pander or anything like that. I’m always gonna stick to my style and stick to what I do best, which is beating people up in fantastic fashion. And, yeah, I’ve done that my whole career, and I wanna get back to that. I’m not really worried about the outcome. It’s more about the journey.”

We’ll get to see the results of Adesanya’s mental refocusing on August 17th. Check out the full UFC 305 card right here.

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Dana White doesn’t see the UFC as a monopoly, it’s just the best game in town.

For years, fighters within the organization and those on the outside looking in have criticized White and Co. for creating what they believe is a monopoly in the world of mixed martial arts.

Dominating the global MMA scene for the last two decades, or at least since PRIDE FC collapsed, the UFC has grown exponentially on the back of fighters who have been subject to restrictive non-compete clauses and a ridiculously low revenue share when compared to that of other major sports leagues like the MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL.

White has routinely defended the subject of fighter pay on countless occasions, suggesting that anyone who doesn’t like it is welcome to start their own promotion. He offered a similar sentiment during a recent interview with FOX News, telling Brian Kilmeade that the UFC is not a monopoly and anyone is free to start their own company to try and take a piece of the MMA pie.

“People have called us a monopoly and all this stuff for years,” White said. “We’re just the best. We’re the best at what we do. There’s no barrier to entry. Anybody can get into this. You could start a league tomorrow and pay the guys whatever you want.

“A lot of smart, talented, big business moguls have gotten into this sport and tried to compete with me and they couldn’t do it. You have to have that competitive spirit. You have to want to compete.”

Former UFC fighter calls the promotion’s $ 335 million class-action settlement a ‘huge win’

Earlier this year, TKO Group, the promotion’s parent company, settled a courtroom conflict originating from five interconnected class-action lawsuits by paying out a whopping $ 335 million to former fighters including Cung Le, Nate Quarry, Jon Fitch, and more than 1,200 others who claimed that the promotion violated antitrust laws intended to promote competition and avoid monopolies.

The group argued that the UFC had used “improper strategies to dominate the market for MMA fighter services” which led to a decrease in fighter pay. If found guilty, the UFC could have been on the hook for anywhere from $ 800 million to $ 1.6 billion. Instead, the promotion settled for less than half of the lowest asking price.

Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub called the settlement a big win for the promotion and placed much of the blame on the fighters for failing to change anything in the industry.

“UFC settled the antitrust lawsuit. HUGE win for the UFC. Bad for every other organization for so many reasons,” Schaub wrote. “UFC remains the king. Until the fighters unionize like MLB, NBA, and NFL nothing will ever change. You can be mad at @danawhite all you want but it’s not his fault or job.

“His Job is to build the UFC as big as possible and make the most profit. Period. Which he’s doing at a historic level. This unfortunately is on the fighters.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

If anyone was crazy enough to fight on four hours’ notice at UFC 303 and then turn around and compete again just a few weeks later, it would be Dan Ige. But that won’t be the case for his return to action.

The veteran featherweight made history when he accepted a fight against Diego Lopes just hours before setting foot in the octagon. He came up short in a decision, but Ige earned a ton of respect for his willingness to not only accept the fight, but also give Lopes everything he could handle over three rounds.

Unfortunately, Ige did get banged up a little bit in the fight, which prevents him from returning on July 20 for his originally scheduled clash with Chepe Mariscal at a UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas. The good news is UFC CEO Dana White said he’s willing to give Ige and Lopes pretty much whatever they wanted next after both stepped up to save UFC 303.

“I mean, shit, at this very moment my f*cking leg hurts, but you never know. July 20 rolls around, I wake up, roll out of bed, and feel like fighting that day,” Ige said with a laugh when speaking to MMA Fighting. “But, realistically, I want to wait.

“I want to fight at the Sphere. I think my plan was to fight July 20 and call out an opponent for the Sphere. I just think it makes sense. What we did and getting Dana’s reassurance that we can have that, I’m going all-in on that. We’ll see what happens. Is it Diego? Is it Yair [Rodriguez]? Is it Chepe? I don’t know. I think we’ll get a big fight. Whoever it is, is going to be a big fight at the Sphere.”

UFC 306, which is also the second-ever Noche UFC event to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, takes place at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 14.

White has repeatedly teased the massive investment he made in the event to ensure UFC pulls off one of the greatest cards in history inside the massive $ 2.3 billion arena.

That’s exactly why Ige wants to join that card, and he’s open to whatever opponent UFC throws at him.

Could that potentially include a rematch against Lopes with both fighters getting a full training camp to actually prepare for each other?

“You never know what’s going to happen from here on out, but we cemented our legacy right there,” Ige said of Lopes. “Do we fight again? I don’t know. He has a tremendous amount of respect for me, as I do for him. That being said, it could be fun. You give us both time and opportunity to game plan, to study each other, to both weigh in at 145 so there’s no weird variables. I’m not going to sit here and call him out like, ‘I would have had you if I had two more minutes!’ Because it doesn’t matter.

“I guess we’ve just got to sit and wait and see what happens. The UFC is clever and obviously they do their job very well and can get shit done in four hours, so they can make something happen, and I’m just going to trust whatever they’re doing. We’ll see what happens from here on out.”

Over the past few years, Ige found an uncanny knack at calling for specific opponents and UFC granting his wish. That was his plan when he had a fight scheduled on July 20, with hopes that he would call his shot again for UFC 306 in September.

Now, Ige feels like the goodwill he’s earned with UFC and the praise he’s received from fans puts him in a position where he doesn’t need to mention anyone by name to land a marquee opponent.

“I don’t believe I have to call out anyone at this point,” Ige said. “Had I fought, whoever I fought on July 20 and win, I have to make that callout. But doing what I just did [at UFC 303], now I’ve got the hype. I’ve got the hype now. That’s what people do. You want to steal people’s hype.

“I’ve seen Diego’s rise. I’m like, ‘I love that fight.’ Because I want that, I want the stardom. I want the fame. We’ve both got it now. They match me with anyone, it’s going to be a big fight.”

While he’s dealing with a sore leg right now, Ige has no doubt that he’ll be back in the gym soon enough, and thanks to his short-notice fight at UFC 303, he even has a new contract to break in when he competes again.

“I had a one-off agreement for this fight specifically and I got a new contract,” Ige said. “I’m going to get paid more than I’ve ever been paid. I’m happy. I’m happy with where I’m at. The UFC did a great job of taking care of me and always do.

“I’m taking this week just to recover my body and I’ll get right back on the horse because I have no serious injuries. My leg’s a little sore from this freaking guy kicking it, but outside of that we’ll be good. I’ll be good to go when September rolls around.”

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