Ian Machado Garry is finally getting his shot at UFC gold on Saturday, but he faces a daunting task going up against the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport in Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n
Currently riding a remarkable 16-fight win streak, Makhachev has effectively looked unstoppable at both lightweight and welterweight. He\u2019s heavily favored to win on Saturday night but Garry is obviously gunning for the upset and his chance to shock the world by beating Makhachev to win the title.<\/p>\n
Retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown believes Garry has everything necessary to become champion one day, but he just doesn\u2019t see how the always outspoken Irishman gets past a brick wall like Makhachev.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is an extremely skilled guy,\u201d Brown said about Garry on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. \u201cI\u2019ve given him praises for a long time. I think he\u2019s got championship material in him. I don\u2019t doubt that he can make this a good fight. He\u2019s just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had he got a fight with Jack Della Maddalena, I think it would be a 50\/50 fight. But here\u2019s Islam Makhachev, the wrong guy at the wrong time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much of that is in this sport. So much comes down to timing and matchups. It\u2019s just unfortunate for Ian. I think he does have championship potential. I\u2019d love to see him against the other top guys, the [Carlos] Prates, Michael Morales and guys like that. But Islam is just about as bad of a matchup as you could possibly put together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the simplest terms as far as strategy goes, Garry almost certainly has to stop Makhachev\u2019s takedowns if he hopes to have any success on the feet.<\/p>\n
While Garry is certainly an elite striker, he\u2019s not known for having true knockout power, which means he may have to outpoint Makhachev for 25 minutes to get the job done at UFC 330.<\/p>\n
Anything is possible but Brown just doesn\u2019t see how Garry stays off the ground for the entire fight because Makhachev could potentially land one big takedown and his opponent never gets up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to stop his takedowns,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThat\u2019s the big thing and then somehow win on points on the feet or land some big shots to make Islam a little bit shy of coming in again or lands some big shots and get a knockout, which Ian is just not known for. It\u2019s not like it couldn\u2019t happen. We still get these matchups from 1990 all the time: Striker versus grappler. Of course, Ian has good grappling and Islam has good striking so it\u2019s not as pure as it used to be, but I think we know very clearly what both people\u2019s game plans are here and it\u2019s just a matter of who can implement it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have someone at the level of Islam and his wrestling, it\u2019s just hard to imagine someone is going to catch up to that unless they\u2019ve been wrestling their whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the feet, Garry may have an advantage but Brown says it\u2019s not as lopsided as the fight hitting the floor. Makhachev may not be known as an elite striker but he can handle himself in those exchanges and because he doesn\u2019t have to fear Garry\u2019s power as much, he can not only survive but potentially thrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest issue here is Ian being more of a decision guy and not really a power striking, knockout guy, Islam might be able to make some mistakes on the feet,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cLet\u2019s say Ian is able to keep it on the feet, Islam can still make mistakes theoretically, he can go a little bit further to get the takedown because he\u2019s not at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again hypothetically on paper, if Ian makes one mistake on the ground, that\u2019s probably going to be it. You can\u2019t do silly things on the ground with Islam Makhachev. Charles Oliveira found that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because Makhachev is such a nightmare matchup, Brown says Garry\u2019s only real chance is putting on an absolutely flawless performance and it\u2019s just hard for anybody to do that in a five-round fight. At some point, Brown anticipates that Garry is going to make a mistake and that\u2019s all Makhachev needs to seize the opening to finish the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIslam can make some mistakes, but Ian really can\u2019t,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe can\u2019t really make mistakes. Because Islam will capitalize on those mistakes. He has to fight the perfect fight. Islam doesn\u2019t really have to fight the perfect fight. He\u2019s just got to fight his fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and iHeartRadio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ian Machado Garry is finally getting his shot at UFC gold on Saturday, but he faces a daunting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,45518,1591,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-851540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-mmaf-podcast-network","tag-podcasts","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851540","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=851540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}