Ian Machado Garry credits Jack Della Maddalena for UFC title win – but sees mental weakness

USA Today

19-05-2025

Ian Machado Garry credits Jack Della Maddalena for UFC title win – but sees mental weakness
Ian Machado Garry gives all credit in the world to Jack Della Maddalena for what he did inside the cage at UFC 315, but the admiration might stop there.
Machado Garry was cageside as the backup fighter for the title fight May 10 in Montreal. Though his seat could be best described as one of the best in the house, Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) said he got the wrong impression of the two fighters' abilities in-person. When he watched the fight back, his opinion changed.
"I know how fast I am. I know real time," Machado Garry told Uncrowned on Monday. "I thought both of them looked slow from watching it with my own eyes. Then, I watched it back on TV and it was a completely different look. Jack looked a hell of a lot cleaner than he did in person. He looked a lot faster when you just watched him vs. Belal. When you're sat front row, I'm watching it as if I'm in there. That's my mentality. There was a lot of things Jack did that I thought were quite sloppy. But technically he was the better striker, so he was going to win that regardless. Belal has never been known for his striking."
So was it Della Maddalena's skills or Belal Muhammad's shortcomings that led to the end-result of an Australian welterweight champion? Machado Garry thinks it was a combination of both. But in response to comments made by Della Maddalena's coach Ben Vickers on Submission Radio, Garry unloaded the champion's abilities shown in previous fights.
"In his last four fights, Jack has had one finish," Machado Garry said. "So he's telling me I need to get into the gym and I need to find some power. He got beat up pretty bad. ... Belal ain't nowhere near the striker I am. I think we can both agree with that. Belal ain't nothing compared to me on the feet. But he looked rough when he was in your studio, yes. I've bend his nose backward the way it should be. His coach should stay out of this. My son giving him M&Ms is a playful, harmful joke, having a laugh about him missing weight. It was all good. It was all a bit of banter. I'm not flying around the world trying to be a superstar, trying to be someone famous. I'm flying around the world ready to fight. If I'm needed, I'll show up and I'll do what I need to do to fight. If he's the champion, I'll take the belt from his hands."
It's unclear what Machado Garry's next move is. One week before he stepped on the scale in Montreal, he defeated Carlos Prates by unanimous decision. The win and quick turnaround for the backup opportunity has likely landed him in the UFC's best graces, but with Islam Makhachev headed to welterweight and Shavkat Rakhmonov waiting in the wings, it's unclear when Machado Garry might fight next.
One day, Machado Garry sees a showdown with Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC), however. When that time comes, he'll not only be eager to back up his comments about Maddalena's skills, but also make him pay for comments Maddalena made about Machado Garry's family at the UFC 315 pre-fight press conference.
"There's a playful joke about a child giving a fighter M&Ms with the baseline comedy of, 'Take these, eat these, miss weight and my daddy will step in and win a world title.' That's just a laugh. It's low-level," Machado Garry said. "Then to go out there and say the comments that he said was just immature. It shows that he's very sensitive. Because if he's said something like that, which he's never acted out of his character, which means what I was doing on fight week irritated him enough to trigger him to say something like that. It means when I do fight him, I'm going to open up a whole can of irritation. Because I reckon he's mentally weak. I can get in his head. But I'll never stoop so low as to mention his child and his children and his wife, because I don't need to. I walk in there in the octagon. I'll punch the mouth off him. I'll take his belt. I don't need to say anything."