{"id":717200,"date":"2026-06-05T15:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717200\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:38:13","slug":"belal-muhammad-ian-machado-garry-runs-a-lot-but-he-understands-strategy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/717200\/","title":{"rendered":"Belal Muhammad: Ian Machado Garry runs a lot, but ‘he understands strategy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Belal Muhammad<\/a> finds Ian Machado Garry<\/a> tricky, but thinks he needs to clean up one major area if he wants to become UFC champion.<\/p>\n

Muhammad’s most recent loss came to Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 265<\/a> this past November. UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev<\/a> (28-1 MMA, 17-1 UFC) is eyeing his first title defense against Machado Garry<\/a> (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) in August, and Muhammad weighed in on the Irishman’s chances.<\/p>\n

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“Ian is very smart. He understands strategy. He understands how to move and distance,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s media day. “I think it’ll be a lot of running, but it’s just for Islam to catch him and try to grab hold of him.”<\/p>\n

Muhammad (24-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC), who will look to rebound against Gabriel Bonfim (19-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 278 (Paramount+<\/a>) headliner at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, explains what makes Machado Garry’s style so deceptive.<\/p>\n

However, former welterweight champion Muhammad wonders if Machado Garry can keep up his style for a championship fight.<\/p>\n

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“He gives you that there’s nothing to fear, and then it’s like, ‘Oh man, it’s been three rounds already and he’s gotten away so many times,'” Muhammad said of Machado Garry. “I think, obviously, his biggest weakness is his cardio, so for himself is try to fix that, and you’ve got to go five rounds.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to figure out a way to go five rounds, especially with your style, where you’re not a finisher like that. You have to be able to push that same pace, push that same running for five rounds. I think fighters are starting to see his weaknesses. But he makes adjustments. He’s always trying to get better, too, so let’s see what he does.”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad breaks down Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Belal Muhammad finds Ian Machado Garry tricky, but thinks he needs to clean up one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,40142,786,56532,27140,64239,785,3169,85,787],"class_list":["post-717200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belal-muhammad","tag-fighting","tag-ian-machado-garry","tag-islam-makhachev","tag-machado-garry","tag-mma","tag-mma-junkie","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}