Chael Sonnen is not a fan of how Ian Machado Garry pulled out of his UFC 296 fight against Vicente Luque.
In the lead-up to the fight, Garry was under fire on social media due to his relationship with his wife, which several fighters backed him up with. However, the Irishman also made some comments towards Luque which some fans weren’t a fan of.
So, many were curious to see what Garry had to say at media day and at the press conference. But, unfortunately, it was revealed on Wednesday evening it was revealed he was forced out of the scrap due to an illness, which Sonnen is disappointed with.
“I thought that Garry had a lot of pressure on him, and how is he going to deal? He’s always had the crowd eating out of his hand. I was in Boston for example, that crowd went crazy for him and O’Malley – but they went crazy,” Sonnen said to MMAJunkie. “He was going to have the opposite experience. How is he going to do? Can he handle the boos? Not many people want to be heels because they can’t handle the boos, and I was just curious. It was going to be a very rare test. He was put in an interesting position. I’m disappointed we’re not going to see the fight.”
Sonnen wishes Garry spoke to the media
Along with Chael Sonnen being disappointed that Ian Machado Garry won’t fight, the former UFC fighter is annoyed with how the Irishman handled everything.
Sonnen believes Garry’s PR team let him down as the Irishman should have spoken to the media about everything and embraced the heel role.
“I just think there was a few ways to handle that,” Sonnen said. “I think Ian Garry’s got very good advice. He’s clearly had great coaches. Just by example: He’s a handsome guy, he’s well-spoken, he gets the game, his skills are top-shelf. His PR sucks. Not that it’s bad – it sucks. It’s terrible. I only share that because there’s only one thing you can’t do, which is nothing – which is what he did do.
“He could have showed up to the press conference, sit with a book. He could have set it up and walked out and the book just sits in his spot. He could have gone to the press conference, put a cigar in, put his feet up and read the book at the press conference and ignored the questions completely. He could have done anything but nothing,” Sonnen continued.
With Garry no longer fighting at UFC 296, it’s uncertain when he will speak to the media about everything.
