If you spend time on any version of the MMA internet, by now you’ve probably seen this video. It shows Ian Machado Garry, the man who will challenge for Islam Makhachev’s welterweight title at UFC 330 on Saturday in Philadelphia, making his way up the stairs at the UFC Performance Institute with a gym bag slung over his shoulder.
An unremarkable setting and activity. Nothing to it. Except for the fact that Garry somehow manages to turn this instance of basic locomotion into something that is part strip tease and part giraffe-like prance. The accompanying text explains why we’re choosing this moment to revisit these few seconds from Garry’s life.
“How do I explain to a casual fan that this is the man that will stop the pound for pound king from breaking Anderson Silva’s win streak record?” wrote X user @qpe.
How, indeed. Especially if it actually turns out to be true.
You may not be surprised when I tell you that the replies to this post were not exactly kind. Some speculated freely on Garry’s marital life. Others focused their attention on what kind of medical attention he might require in the aftermath of Saturday’s main event. The term “fruitcake” was oddly prevalent.
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It wasn’t just that the prediction and the accompanying display of gleeful goofballery prompted disagreement. It was that the suggestion alone — the mere possibility that Garry might beat Makhachev — made some people viscerally angry.
In the fight game, that’s what you call personal investment. It’s a good thing, usually. It means fans care enough about you to pick a side. In the case of Garry, a self-described plant-based feminist who believes we’d be better off if women ran the world, the side many fans have picked is sputtering rage mixed with deep-seeded doubt and tinged with at least a pinch of confusion.
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Or, as Makhachev’s coach, former undefeated UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, put it in a recent interview: “It’s not that I don’t like him. I don’t understand him, what this guy is talking about.”
And yeah, that’s about right. Many people in the MMA space just don’t know what to do with a man like Garry.
This is supposed to be the ultimate tough guy sport. Fighters are expected to be fearless chest-thumpers. They don’t even want to be the first to break eye contact in a staredown — even when it means looking totally ridiculous for minutes at a time — lest they signal weakness. UFC CEO Dana White recently got on social media to declare, apropos of nothing in particular, that “the only real TOXIC MASCULINITY is the absence of MASCULINITY.” And who but a true tough guy could employ the caps lock key to such effect?
Of course people don’t quite get Garry’s whole deal. He smiles a lot. He’s been known to be publicly, unapologetically silly. He added the Machado to his name because it was his wife’s maiden name. You can, without looking too hard, find a video of him apologizing to his wife with flowers and a musical performance. It’s like that scene in “Say Anything,” except that Garry is a better kickboxer than Lloyd Dobler was.
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In a sport where everyone seems to be constantly on guard for any accidental expressions of vulnerability — a world of men essentially scared stoic — Garry is an outlier simply by not appearing to care if he gets made fun of. He’s the kid at the junior high dance who is more interested in having fun than looking cool. And some people hate that.
MMA tough guys don’t come much tougher — or much scarier — than two-division champ Islam Makhachev.
(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)
It’s pretty perfect Makhachev would be the final boss for Garry’s ascent through the UFC ranks. He’s the current king of MMA’s contingent of unsmiling, unflinching Dagestani bone-crushers. These guys seem to regard silliness as a sin. It’s like they learned to wrestle because it was the only socially acceptable way to hug someone. Even their jokes have a vicious, violent edge to them. Seems to be the way they like it.
It is, on paper, unthinkable that a guy like Garry could beat a guy like Makhachev in hand-to-hand combat. As a rule, the silly goose does not fare well against the bloodthirsty mountain eagle. Garry seems outmatched here in every aspect except height and reach, and yet he’s still waking up every morning telling us he’s happy to be one day closer to being a UFC champion.
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He also has to know that there are legions of self-proclaimed tough guy types out there among the fan base just waiting to gloat over his defeat. It’s not just that they don’t like him; it’s that they don’t like the idea that a guy like him could be good at fighting. They want someone to end that madness right now and melt this snowflake in a pool of his own blood. It is important to them. A certain identity and an understanding of the world is at stake here.
Garry has to realize all that. Doesn’t he? The way he has flaunted certain aspects of his personality headed into this fight, it’s like he’s trying to inflame that portion of the crowd. Some people, it’s like they only watch this sport to confirm their belief that there’s exactly one way to be a genuine tough guy. When someone like Garry threatens to break that mold — even worse, to do it while beating the guy who’s an archetype for it — they really, really don’t like it.
But again, no one could hate him that much if they didn’t care. And getting people to care about you is a big part of success in this business. There are some excellent fighters in the UFC who can’t even get fans to remember their names, or spend a single solitary moment thinking about them when they aren’t actively fighting on TV. Garry has staked out his own place in the MMA fan consciousness, and he’s pretty much the only resident of that particular zone.
Of course, the other major ingredient for MMA success? It’s winning. Especially in the big fights, against the big opponents, with a huge hunk of leather and metal on the line.
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That’s where Garry will really be up against it. Makhachev hasn’t lost in so long you wonder if he’s forgotten how. If Garry wants to be remembered as something other than the MMA rage-bait of the moment, it’s up to him to offer a reminder.
