It’s been a whirlwind week for undefeated Irish standout Ian Machado Garry.
A few short weeks away from the biggest challenge of his mixed martial arts career, ‘The Future’ has found himself embroiled in controversy after details it was revealed that his wife, who is 14 years older than he is, wrote a book more than a decade ago teaching women how to attract the attention of young wealthy athletes.
UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland seemingly opened the floodgates when he addressed the situation in a video on social media, calling Garry’s wife a “succubus” and pleading with Garry to walk away from the whole situation.
Strickland tried to help Ian Garry pic.twitter.com/8d8uRG5gR4
— Ujjwal (@Ujjwald_73) November 28, 2023
Since then, Garry’s wife, Layla Machado Garry, has gone on the defensive, calling her book “satire” in an attempt to quell some of the heat being sent her and her husband’s way.
Offering his take on the situation, former two-division champ Henry Cejudo suggested that this whole thing could very well be a ploy by Garry’s wife to generate some attention for herself.
“Whatever it is Ian Garry decides to do he decides to do, but once it gets out, but once it starts getting out to the media and guys like myself, that’s when you gotta be careful,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “I think when there’s too much promotion on what it is his wife or girlfriend is trying to accomplish, she’s actually done a good job. You know why? Because we’ve been talking about them.
He continued, “Is this something that Ian Garry and his wife are actually plotting? Because if it is, that ‘WAG’ is getting a lot of attention. That book could become a best seller because she was able to get a young up-and-coming undefeated Irishman and she was able to make him a Machado. She was able give him her Brazilian last name. You talk about power. You talk about a woman with a plan.
“Is it that I want to hate on his wife or [give] kudos to her? Or does she have us fooled?”
Cejudo Says Ian Machado Garry Is in for a World of Hurt When He Steps in a Room with Colby Covington
If Ian Garry thinks things are a bit intense right now with all the backlash and MMA media coverage, just wait until he’s sitting in a room with the likes of Colby Covington, one of the UFC’s most outspoken and proficient trash-talkers.
“You better have a lot of armor,” Cejudo warned. “A knife. A brick. A tank and everything under the sun because Colby Covington, he’s got something for you. I feel like if Ian Garry is going to go to these press conferences, he’s gonna have to turn into the bad guy. He just needs to accept it. Come out in all black and ask the UFC if you can have your wife next to you as you go through this press conference.”
Garry and Covington are both scheduled to be part of the promotion’s final pay-per-view of the year, UFC 296 on December 16. ‘The Future’ is scheduled to scrap with Vicente Luque while Covington will headline the evening’s festivities along with reigning and defending welterweight world champion Leon Edwards.
“If you’re not thick-skinned, if you’re not titanium, your career could go down because physiologically your mind’s not there and that’s what worries me about an up-and-coming guy [like Garry],” Cejudo added.
Watch the full video below:
