Dana White fires another warning at Ian Garry

White believes Garry failed to show enough killer instinct against Islam Makhachev.

UFC President Dana White raised several points criticizing Ian Machado Garry following his performance at the UFC 330 event. White believes that Ian Machado Garry should have been much more hungry for victory against Islam Makhachev, rather than just showing him respect the whole time. This was particularly evident in the fifth round, when the fight was still essentially even, and Ian Machado Garry felt he absolutely had to show his opponent respect. Now, about a week after the event, he spoke about it again at a press conference and delivered a long, angry tirade. He said:

“You either have (killer instinct), or you don’t, in my opinion, or you made the mistake one time, and you won’t do it again. We’ll see how it plays out. Again, I’m not on Ian. He’s a classy guy, he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But be a nice guy when those five minutes are up, then you can be as classy as you want. You have five minutes to try to finish one of the greatest of all time and have that belt wrapped around your waist. From then, you can tell Islam you love him and how great he is and shake hands and hug him and take pictures with him, whatever you want to do. You have five minutes to win. That was my point”

he said.

Based on this statement, it seems likely that Ian Machado Garry isn’t exactly popular with UFC leadership right now. So he’ll have to earn the UFC’s trust again. He remains a great fighter, as his record shows. But against Islam Makhachev, he simply didn’t take advantage of his opportunity, at least according to White. Now he first has to get back to a point where he can talk about a title fight, and he’ll probably need a couple of fights to do that. So we’ll just have to wait and see what’s next on the schedule for him, and how quickly he can earn another title shot.

I’m really curious to see how things will go for him. I think he’ll be back at a point where a title fight is on the table relatively quickly, but I’m curious to see if he’ll take advantage of his next opportunity.