MMA news: Ian Machado Garry blasts ‘absolute coward’ Colby Covington

After stepping in to replace the injured Belal Muhammad at UFC 310, Ian Machado Garry has been extremely critical of former interim UFC welterweight champion Colby Covington.

Rumours of a potential bout between Garry and Covington began to circulate earlier in the year for UFC 303 after a back-and-forth on social media, but the match-up never materialised.

This led to Machado Garry fighting Michael ‘Venom’ Page instead at UFC 303, where he won a decision, writes Sports News Blitz’s Niall Togher.

The Irish prospect looked to round out his 2024 with a win against Joaquin Buckley on December 15 - but a change of plans led him to step up and fight the week before, against Shavkat Rakhmonov instead in a number one contender’s fight at UFC 310 following the champion Belal Muhammad’s withdrawal from the card due to injury.

This rearranging of the schedule meant Buckley was now without an opponent for December 15. That was until Covington agreed to take the fight.

The timing of this seemed all-too convenient for Garry who on ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’ admitted he was ‘seething’ that their paths have not crossed in 2024 after campaigning for a fight against Covington.

“I’ve been screaming and shouting about fighting that man (Colby Covington) from the rafters, this man’s made videos about me, my wife, my kids, talking about all this sh*t and here’s this man avoiding me like the plague,” said Machado Garry.

“Then the second I book in against the scariest man in the division (Shavkat Rakhmonov), he’s like ‘Oh I’ll fight in Florida’ (against Joaquin Buckley).

“It just proves that he’s a coward. That he wants nothing to do with me and the truth is I already know I’ve beaten him. I know I’ve already mentally beaten him.

“He’s weak, he’s an absolute coward and I believe he’s going to go out there and get steamrolled by Joaquin Buckley.”

With Machado Garry’s career in the ascendancy and Covington’s seemingly going in the other direction after patchy recent form and long spells of inactivity, a match-up between the two may never come to fruition unless Garry loses to Rakhmonov at UFC 310, then the week after Covington goes and beats Buckley to set up a fight between the pair in 2025.

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