Darren Till thinks Ian Machado Garry doesn’t do himself any favors with the way he behaves outside the Octagon.
Following his decision win over Belal Muhammad in the co-main event at UFC Qatar on Saturday, Machado Garry (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) got into a scuffle backstage with UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev appeared to become aggressive after what initially seemed like a friendly interaction between the two, and when he pushed Machado Garry, the Irishman reacted with surprise.
Now Till, a friend of Chimaev who has trained extensively with the Chechen star, has taken to social media to call out “The Future” for what he believes is inauthentic behavior.
“Ian Garry is such a good fighter, man… but my God, he’s possibly the fakest human on earth—fake beyond all belief,” Till tweeted. “It’s so hard to like him. I’ve literally sat in my bedroom with my own little demons in my head telling me to force myself to like him.
“He’s calling Khamzat a child. He was being fake. That whole interaction was fake. And when Ian turned, you could see he was scared. Khamzat is like me. That’s why we were best mates.”
Machado Garry was critical of Till’s fellow UK fighter Leon Edwards in the lead-up to Saturday’s fight, insisting the former welterweight champion should retire after suffering a third consecutive defeat at UFC 322. The relationship between them goes back to when Machado Garry trained with Edwards and his team in Birmingham, before he was asked to leave the camp.
“Ian is a really good fighter, but he’s just so unlikable. So, so, so unlikable,” Till said. “Even hating on Leon’s performance the way he did. Garry got kicked out of that gym, as he did others, because he’s a wanker at the end of the day. As much as he’s a good fighter and I’ve tried to support him, Ian Garry is just a proper, proper wanker… a fake wanker at that.”
