Ian Machado Garry seems to have hit upon an approach that’s really been getting fans’ attention ahead of his title fight at UFC 330 next weekend. Is it on purpose or just a beautiful accident?
Plus, what’s up with making Arman Tsarukuyan win another fight to get the top contender status he already earned back in November? All that and more in this week’s mailbag.
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To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA on X or @Ben_Fowlkes on Threads.
@NeedXtoseePosts: If I recall correctly, either on your podcasts or the mailbag you mentioned
A good way for a UFC fighter to get fans to care, even if it meant going heel would be a “woke” one.
Does Ian Machado Garry owe you a drink?
Cause certain fans – really care now.
Ian Machado Garry has to know what he’s doing, right? Right?? Because if he does, and he’s ramping it up on purpose, he might be a genius.
I see him out there in a PR campaign about being a “plant-based” fighter. I hear him in interviews talking about how women should run the world. I see people recirculating that video of him offering flowers and lip syncing to slow jams as an attempt at apologizing to his wife. All things that would make a certain segment of the MMA fan base go: there is no way this guy could possibly become UFC welterweight champ.
Ian Machado Garry reacts after a victory against Belal Muhammad in a welterweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena (ABHA Arena) in Doha, Qatar, on November 22, 2025. (Photo by Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NurPhoto via Getty Images)
All of which is to say, yeah, he’s making them care. He’s also finding a niche that hasn’t yet been explored in this sport. We’ve seen plenty of fighters brand themselves as the ultra right-wing misogynist of the people. We’ve gotten to the point where that’s hardly enough to set yourself apart from the pack. But a guy leaning into his identity as a vegan feminist with a softer side while still winning cage fights at the highest level? That’s new for us.
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I’m also inclined to believe that it’s at least mostly genuine. Garry might be turning the volume up on some of it as a way of trolling the fans and stoking their outrage, but I do think he really believes those things. I don’t think it’s all an act.
Of course, now comes the hard part. In order to make this branding exercise really pay off, he needs to win the title. And to do that, he has to beat Islam Makhachev, the boogeyman of two different UFC divisions. That’s going to be tough. Really tough. But at least he’s got us invested now.
@Beastin364: Do you agree with making Arman fight Ruffy to get a title shot? I kinda get it just because he hasn’t fought at all this year but also come on wasn’t his last fight also supposed to be for no 1 contender status
As far as I’m concerned, Arman Tsarukyan is the top contender at lightweight. If this were the kind of sport where victory alone was enough to move you up the ladder until there’s nothing left but the championship, he’d be booked to fight UFC lightweight champ Justin Gaethje already. But we all know this is not that type of sport.
So instead we’re going to make Tsarukyan jump through another hoop first, all while promising him that the title shot is still just around the next corner. We’re also going to ignore, at least for now, the question of how a win over Mauricio Ruffy, who’s currently ranked No. 10, is title-shot worthy.
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In the meantime, what’s the plan for Gaethje? Does he sit around waiting to see what happens between Tsarukyan and Ruffy? Because somehow I don’t think that’s what he has in mind. He got the title late in his career and knows he probably doesn’t have many more fights left. I think he’s probably looking for a little more name with a little less risk of being taken down and elbowed into oblivion. Just a hunch.
@rithemnblues: What do you think of the current MMA landscape? Seems exciting right now with the PFL/MVP merger, Coker coming back, GFL from the ashes (lol), and KSW & Oktagon overseas.
First of all I can’t believe you included GFL on that list. LOL indeed, sir. But yes, I am excited about the possibilities here. If the past few years have shown us anything, it’s that MMA gets a little stagnant without competition and diverse opportunities.
On the TKO investor call this week, company executives said they welcomed the competition from MVPFL (working title), since the rising tide lifts all ships or whatever. That might be (and probably is) just a cheap talking point that they didn’t mean at all, but I do think there’s some truth to it.
The UFC has the roster and the resources to do big, memorable events. We saw that with the White House event and with the Sphere event before that. But the UFC also needs a kick in the butt sometimes to shake it out of the complacency that comes with enormous success and basically zero competition.
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With more promoters trying to find a space for themselves in this landscape, I’m hopeful that fans will get to see more ways of putting on an MMA event while fighters get the pay bump that comes with having more bidders for their services. That’s a win all the way around.
@MMAMATLOCK: Robelis Despaigne Sanquet. Why?
If you’re asking why the UFC would re-sign Robelis Despaigne now, I’d argue there are two reasons. The first is to take him away from MVP and Jake Paul before they could potentially do some good heavyweight business with him. He knocked out Junior dos Santos at the MVP Netflix event and building to a fight with lineal MMA heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou just makes sense after that. Now there’s one less piece on the board for MVP to play with.
The second reason is, bro, look around the heavyweight division right now. Even the UFC is hurting for talent. Despaigne didn’t exactly distinguish himself in his first run, but he’s been an exciting striker elsewhere since then. If you book him into the right kinds of fights, he’s probably well worth the money.
Speaking of which, did you happen to see what the UFC is doing with him in his first fight back? Matching him against Tai Tuivasa, a stand-up slugger on a long losing streak? Yeah, I’d say the UFC knows what it’s doing there. We all see it.
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@NoahSas23: Assuming he signs with the UFC , I’d love to see the winner of Gamrot vs Salkilld call out Usman Nurmagomedov. Is that how you’d match up Usman, or would you put him with a higher ranked guy that isn’t booked like Max?
If I’m MVPFL (honestly the more I use it, the more I like it), I get out the checkbook and really try to hold on to Usman Nurmagomedov. I tell him that he can be a highly paid star with us, or just another guy in the UFC. I add some zeroes on his paycheck. I do everything I can to avoid beginning this new venture by losing one of the few really, really good fighters on the roster.
But if he does jump ship to the UFC, it will be interesting to see what the matchmakers decide to do with him right out of the gate. This is something we don’t see all that often anymore — a top guy who comes in with some major profile as a free agent — and it can be tricky.
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Do you throw him in against top guy right away? Do you give him a warm-up fight as a test and a transition, and risk blowing all his hype with a disappointing poor performance after you paid big bucks to get him? We’ll see. But I’m not sure I’d waste an opportunity to call someone out picking on a guy who’s not even under contract yet.
