Ian Machado Garry wouldn’t hesitate for a second to serve as a backup for a major UFC fight if the opportunity came around again.
Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) weighed in as the alternate for the recent UFC welterweight title bout between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315, just two weeks after his victory over Carlos Prates.
Although both Muhammad and Della Maddalena made it to the Octagon without issue and Machado Garry wasn’t needed in Montreal, “The Future” says he’d gladly take on the backup role for a big fight again.
“I think I'd do it again for sure”, Machado Garry said during an appearance this week on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I think mentally preparing for a fight is something that I enjoy. Being given the opportunity to go in and fight, I enjoy even more.”
While Machado Garry is open to the idea of weighing in as a backup, he’d much rather have an actual fight lined up at the end of his training camp than spend months preparing only to end up on the sidelines.
“It would obviously have to make sense for me in regard to get ready, prepare for a fight and then have something, whether it be I have a fight after that or I have a fight before that and then I back up again”, he told Helwani. “So I would want to be preparing for something that's locked in and make sure that I'm mentally getting in there and I'm going, right, I'm getting something at the end of this, not just. I fly back home and I go, well, it could have happened. The Prates example is perfect. I fight Prates, (then) two weeks later, three weeks later, a month later, (I’m) ready to weigh in again in case I'm needed. I would do that again in a heartbeat.”
