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Ian Machado Garry squandered the final moments of his UFC 330 main event against Islam Makhachev as far as Dana White is concerned.
Garry challenged Makhachev for the UFC welterweight gold on Aug. 15 in Philadelphia. Makhachev wasn’t exactly on cruise control like most of his fights, but he wasn’t pushed to his absolute limits either in his unanimous decision win. Although if you ask Garry, the pound-for-pound great was “pushed to the wire.”
Garry did have his moments and even marked up Makhachev’s face, but the champion dropped “The Future” in the second round with a head kick, and his grappling was the deciding factor for four of the five rounds in the eyes of two judges who scored it 49-46. There was one judge who gave Makhachev a 48-47 score total, but many agree it wasn’t really a nail bitter.
White had been critical of Garry for being overly friendly with Makhachev in the closing moments of the fight, and he doubled down when speaking to reporters during the UFC Sacramento post-fight press conference.
“You get this opportunity, you’ve worked your whole life to get there, and you come out in the fifth round after you do all this great work, and you want to come out and start hugging him,” White said. “Shaking hands. Tell him how [expletive] great he is when they’re putting the belt on ya. It’s just he might never have that opportunity again, and probably will never get the opportunity at Islam again, who is gonna go down as one of the all-time greats, if not, the greatest by the time he’s done.”
If there’s some advice White would give to Garry, it would be to find his killer instinct and ditch the kind and courteous approach until the final horn has sounded.
“You have five [expletive] minutes,” White said. “Every second of that round counts. Don’t wait 10 seconds telling this guy you [expletive] love him.”
Garry has insisted that his goal remains unchanged. He thinks his plan to have a “decade of dominance” will still come to fruition. Whether or not “The Future” can get back to title contention and eventually win UFC gold remains to be seen.
Do you agree with Dana White’s assessment of Ian Machado Garry being overly friendly at UFC 330? Join in on the conversation in the comments below.
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
