Henry Cejudo provided his opinion on the growing popularity of Ian Garry.
The MMA community has two different viewpoints when talking about Garry. Firstly, some people see him as a future UFC welterweight title contender because he’s 26 years old with a professional MMA record of 13-0 (6-0 in the UFC).
Meanwhile, others are more focused on his personal life, which has become a hot topic. As a result, Garry has gained a bad reputation due to misleading narratives about his wife, gym etiquette, personal philosophy, and more.
During a video posted on Henry Cejudo’s YouTube channel, the former two-division UFC champion talked about several aspects of Garry’s public image. Cejudo had this to say about ‘The Future’ potentially capitalizing on the publicity by playing into the villain role:
“If Ian Garry can use a lot of what is going on right now in his life, in his career, if he can just take that in and turn it into a storyline where he becomes a heel, I think he will be ok. I just don’t know…Every time I talk to somebody about Ian Garry, he’s like, ‘Yeah, man, [Garry] is just naive. He’s somewhat of a dork.’ He means well. He wants to be famous, but it’s just the wrong timing.”
Watch Henry Cejudo’s entire video about Ian Garry below:
Henry Cejudo is cheering for Ian Garry because he’s becoming a massive draw
Love him or hate him, Ian Garry has undoubtedly become one of the most talked about fighters on the planet.
Therefore, experienced fighters like Henry Cejudo know that Garry can benefit the growth of MMA by becoming a superstar and bringing in more casual fans.
Cejudo had this to say during the previously mentioned YouTube video:
“Ian Garry, I’m actually cheering for you. I’m kind of jumping ship now a little bit, and I like Vicente [Luque]. Vicente is represented by Ali [Abdelaziz]. I think the more that we have characters, the more that we have people that, let’s call a spade a spade, that are white, that could fight, and have a mouthpiece, it brings a lot of numbers, it draws a lot of numbers. Conor McGregor has proven that.”
On Saturday, December 16, Ian Garry will step into the Octagon for the seventh time during the UFC 296 main card. Standing across from Garry will be former teammate Vicente Luque, who is coming off a unanimous decision win against Rafael dos Anjos.
It’ll be intriguing to see if ‘The Future’ can tune out the negative noise to defeat Luque and take another step toward earning a UFC welterweight title shot.
