LAS VEGAS – It’s optimistic, to be sure, but it’s hard to blame Ian Machado Garry for his ambition.
Garry (15-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who recently signed with UFC and defeated former Bellator star Michael Page (22-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) by narrow decision in the opening bout of Saturday's UFC 303 main card at T-Mobile Arena, is now off to a stellar 8-0 start to his UFC career.
The welterweight boxer is already thinking about his chance to become the greatest of all time, let alone win a UFC title, and with that latter goal in mind, he'll be ready for any twists of fate that may come his way.
“I'm destined to be one of the greatest of all time,” Gary said at the UFC 303 post-fight press conference. “I'm going to achieve it by any means necessary. I don't care how. In 10 years, my name will be in the GOAT conversation. Who is the greatest of all time? I'll say Jon Jones, (Georges St-Pierre), Anderson Silva, Ian Machado and Gary.”
“I'm going to put my name in this conversation because it's based on opinion. If you're Brazilian, you'll say Anderson Silva. If you're American, you might say Jon Jones. We can all sit here and give our opinion. As long as my name is in this conversation, I've had a successful career.”
But that's 10 years away. Even further down the line, in three weeks there's a welterweight title fight in England, with British champion Leon Edwards defending his title against Belal Muhammad. There's no fear the fight will fall apart, but strange things happen in MMA all the time.
Only former champion Kamaru Usman made his UFC welterweight debut earlier than Garry, who is on an eight-fight winning streak, which is why he said he'll be going to Manchester not just to watch the fight, but just in case something crazy happens – and maybe what's next will become clearer much sooner than expected.
“Manchester is in three weeks, I'll be there, I told UFC before then I'm willing to fill in,” Gary said. “I know there's nobody out there ready to step up to me, I know there's nobody out there willing to step up to me and sign the fight, because I've had a lot of discussions with Hunter (Campbell) and the guys at UFC.”
“There's no one higher than me other than Colby (Covington). He said he's going to run, so there's no one else open. I'm going to go to Manchester and I'm going to be on that scale. If the opportunity arises, I'll go out there and put my hand up.”
For more on the card, check out MMA Junkie's UFC 303 event hub.
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