{"id":756171,"date":"2026-06-24T00:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756171\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:55:09","slug":"michael-morales-fires-back-at-ian-garry-over-move-to-185","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756171\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Morales Fires Back At Ian Garry Over Move To 185"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe Future\u201d has given advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-mma-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 1-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight contender Ian Garry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/451445\/islam-makhachev-vs-ian-garry-official-ufc-330-main-event-mackenzie-dern-vs-gillian-robertson-co-headlines\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">finally gets his shot at UFC gold<\/a> when he takes on reigning 170-pound kingpin Islam Makhachev in the main event of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/451594\/ufc-330-fight-card-start-time-date-location-islam-makhachev-ian-machado-garry\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 330<\/a>, which goes down Sat., Aug. 15, 2026, inside Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But with that comes a logjam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">There was a case that Brazilian knockout artist Carlos Prates could have snuck into the next title shot after scoring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-paramount-plus-news-hub-fight-cards-schedule\/440477\/watch-ufc-perth-video-highlights-results-australia-paramount-prates-knockout-della-maddalena\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">back-to-back knockouts over former UFC champions<\/a>. However, with Garry holding a win over Prates, \u201cThe Nightmare\u201d was basically boxed out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Then there is the boogeyman of the division: Michael Morales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Morales destroyed Sean Brady in his last outing (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-322-jack-della-vs-islam-makhachev-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/403047\/watch-ufc-322-video-highlights-results-espn-ppv-new-york-morales-knockout-brady\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>), and plenty of fans wanted to see the undefeated Ecuadorian get the call against Makhachev because of his size, finishing ability, and terrifying upside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Garry, however, believes Morales should move up a weight class because, in his eyes, Morales is behind Prates in the pecking order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cIt\u2019s unarguable that [Prates has done more than him],\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wzwSHYO2ezA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garry told<\/a> Ariel Helwani. \u201cI don\u2019t know what Morales is going to do right now. He\u2019s been out for nine months of action as well. He\u2019s going to be out for at least another nine months because I can\u2019t guarantee when I\u2019m going to [defend] against Prates or Shavkat \u2014 but Prates has done more than anyone in this sport, and he deserves the next title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Then Garry offered Morales some career advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cIf I was Michael Morales, you know what my advice would be to him? Go up to 185,\u201d Garry said. \u201cBecause you\u2019re young, you\u2019re big, you\u2019re somewhat talented. There is a lack of stars up there in the sport. I think he could do very well there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cBut if he wants to stay at 170, I\u2019ll punch a hole in his head at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">So, is Garry giving Morales legitimate advice? Or does he simply not want to deal with the ridiculous size and danger Morales brings to the Welterweight division?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Either way, Morales heard the suggestion and responded on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI just want to say one thing to Ian Garry,\u201d Morales said. \u201cSuck it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Morales is not going anywhere, and if Garry gets past Makhachev, it sounds like another massive Welterweight grudge match is already waiting for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Future\u201d has given advice. No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight contender Ian Garry finally gets his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,355513],"class_list":["post-756171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756171","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=756171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}