Ian Machado Garry claims Kamaru Usman turned down a fight with him.
Machado Garry (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was actively seeking a fight with Colby Covington before getting booked to face Joaquin Buckley Dec. 14 in the UFC on ESPN 63 headliner in Tampa.
However, when Shavkat Rakhmonov lost out on his title fight against welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in Saturday’s UFC 310 event at T-Mobile Arena, Machado Garry stepped in to face “Nomad” in a five-round co-main event.
According to Machado Garry, a potential fight with Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) was previously in discussion.
“I had many conversations back-to-back with UFC,” Machado Garry said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “Initially, the goal was to line up a fight with Colby Covington. Again, it’s no secret that he’s been running. Then they went down the line and looked at Kamaru Usman. The words I heard from UFC were, ‘Kamaru Usman wants nothing to do with you’ – as in, he’s just running as well.”
Rakhmonov initially called for an interim title fight against Usman, who was seemingly down for the fight. However, Machado Garry isn’t buying that the former UFC welterweight champion was willing to face him or Rakhmonov.
“Usman has a big chest and little balls,” Garry said. “He looks good – he’s got a big chest. He plays the part. But where it matters between the legs, he’s a little man. That’s my outlook on it. Him and Colby, they’re older, they’ve been through the division, they’ve fought guys. Now, they’re getting to the end of their careers. They want to choose the better-stylistic matchup.
“I guarantee this: Usman is going to try and push for a fight with Jack Della Maddalena because he’s seen how easy it was for Gilbert Burns to take him down. If I were in Usman’s shoes, why would I want to fight the guy who is long, rangy, difficult to deal with, when I could fight the guy who I watched two people back-to-back be able to take him down quite easy/”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
