{"id":852637,"date":"2026-08-12T14:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852637\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T14:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:06:29","slug":"ufc-330-garry-and-makhachev-face-off-in-front-of-phillys-rocky-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852637\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC 330: Garry and Makhachev face off in front of Philly\u2019s Rocky statue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The UFC returns to the \u2018City of Brotherly Love\u2019 this Saturday, August 15th for <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> and they\u2019re using some of the most iconic backdrops from Philadelphia to help promote its fights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">On Tuesday we got to see the title fight participants square off for the first time in front of Philly\u2019s historic Rocky statue outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Islam Makhachev will defend his welterweight title (and attempt to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/462375\/islam-makhachev-denies-retirement-rumors-leading-into-ufc-330-were-staying-here-for-more-years\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surpass Anderson Silva\u2019s record<\/a> for most consecutive wins in a row) when he takes on Ian Machado Garry. In the co-main, Mackenzie Dern will defend her women\u2019s strawweight title for the first time against Canadian submission expert <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/429393\/gillian-robertson-calls-out-champ-mackenzie-dern-for-battle-of-the-bjj-aces-the-only-thing-that-makes-sense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gillian Robertson.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">One thing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/mma-mailbag-questions-answers-ufc\/462312\/mania-mailbag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has been brought up<\/a> time and time again leading into the fight between Makhachev and Garry is the supposed size difference. Makhachev had spent the first 15 years of his MMA career at 155 pounds, moving up to 170 to take the belt off Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322. He had no problem <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/458758\/ian-machado-garry-criticizes-islam-makhachev-for-blanket-strategy-thats-not-fun-for-anyone\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dealing with Della Maddalena,<\/a> but there have been questions regarding Ian Machado Garry being much bigger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Garry is listed as 6 foot 3 inches on UFC.com, while Makhachev is just 5 foot 10 inches. Graphic mock-ups from fans on the internet had Garry portrayed as a behemoth next to the runty Makhachev. But today\u2019s faceoff in front of the Rocky statue tells a different story. Sure, Garry is a bit taller. But the size difference is not looking as significant as advertised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Does this change Garry\u2019s chances of beating Makhachev? Makhachev was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-odds\/451464\/ufc-330-odds-ian-garry-opens-as-massive-betting-underdog-to-pound-for-pound-king-islam-makhachev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">already the favorite<\/a> coming into Philly, but he may get a few more bets placed on him coming into the final days of fight week. Even if he beats Garry with the same ease as he manhandled JDM, we expect there to always be whispers that the former lightweight can\u2019t handle the latest big welterweight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">All will be revealed when Makhachev and Garry finally step into the cage on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UFC returns to the \u2018City of Brotherly Love\u2019 this Saturday, August 15th for UFC 330, and they\u2019re&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-852637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852637","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=852637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}