“There’s gonna be no excuses from anyone on the planet,“ Garry said on Instagram. ”When I beat him, I have beaten the greatest pound-for-pound fighter on the planet right now. Your excuses are all finished. There is none. Don’t look for them, don’t pick on them. I’ll be the number one pound-for-pound on the planet. I’ll be the champion of the world and then we can start the aggressive defenses.“
“He’s a big dude,” Garry said about Makhachev. “There’s no excuse. When I beat Islam Makhachev and I win the world title, there will be no excuses from anyone, anywhere on the planet. End of, done. They all look for something. They all want that claim, ’Oh, you know, it was this, it was that.‘ No, it couldn’t have been you. It couldn’t have been that Ian’s just better than you.“
The 28 year-old Garry (17-1) is coming off back-to-back victories over Carlos Prates and former champion Belal Muhammad and is currently ranked No. 3 at 170 pounds. “The Future” will likely need one more victory at 170-pounds to cement his long-awaited welterweight title shot.