Fight Coverage
Coach Conversation | UFC 330: Islam Makhachev vs Ian Machado Garry
Sean Madden and E. Spencer Kyte Break Down Saturday’s UFC 330 Welterweight Title Fight
“At the end of the day, fighting is not easy, but it’s simple.”
There is no better way to sum up the dynamics of a fight because stripped down, there are always only a handful of ways things are going to go, but how we arrive at those outcomes is a complicated, layered, nuanced adventure. When you add in the various additional elements that come with a championship fight, the degree of difficulty when it comes to getting your hand raised increases, but in the end, it’s still just two people stepping into the Octagon and laying everything on the line in hopes of achieving the ultimate success.
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In an effort to better explain the ins and outs of each UFC championship fight, staff writer E. Spencer Kyte sits down with one of the top coaches in the sport to break down the contest with an eye towards identifying the things each combatant does well, how the fight could play out, and the key factors that stand out as the possible deciding elements in the upcoming title clash.
In advance of Saturday’s monumental welterweight championship clash between Islam Makhachev and Ian Machado Garry, Kyte sat down with Sean Madden of Easton Muay Thai and USA Muay Thai to discuss the particulars of each fighter and how things may play out.
BEST TRAITS OF EACH FIGHTER
Kyte: What’s the best trait of each fighter?
Madden: Let’s start with Ian. He has a lot of good traits, and we can talk about the technical side a little later, but a non-technical trait I really like is his composure when he fights. How old is he now?
Kyte: 28; he’ll be 29 in November.
Madden: Relatively young; on the right side of 30 still. I think he’s extremely composed when he fights. He seems to be very present when he fights, and his Fight IQ shows that; he makes great adjustments. I’m really impressed with his composure when he fights, and I think that’s one of his better traits for sure. Technically, his range management. Being a striking coach, I like the way he uses his legs, he mixed his kicks in really well. He has a really great arsenal with his kicks, but his composure is something that really stands out to me and I think that’s gonna play a large factor if he has the ability to be successful in this matchup against Islam.
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Kyte: The IQ piece to me what jumps off the screen. As much as he came in with all the bluster, he’s not someone that cares about how he wins, what you think of his performance — he’ll go out and wrestle “MVP;” he’ll go out and spend the fifth round avoiding Carlos Prates; rightfully, understandably. He doesn’t care about being in a boring fight if it means he’s gonna win. He’ll use his range, fight smart, keep you on the outside, use his footwork, and if you can’t cut him off, you’re going to chase him all day. And for someone that is 28 and has all of this hype, has all of these expectations, to still have that as the foundation and the bedrock of his game is pretty impressive.
Madden: It’s a high upside to me. Getting a title shot at 28 speaks to the high upside, and it’s why that composure stands out particularly to me for him. For Islam, it’s like, “What else can we say about this guy?”
Kyte: “What’s his best trait? Everything!” He might be the best fighter we’ve ever seen.
Madden: One of the most complete mixed martial arts fighters available. He’s at the point now where he had that ace in the hole where people know the wrestling is coming and they can’t stop it. That is such an advantage to have going into a fight; even before you start wrestling, it’s already on their mind. It’s such a massive advantage. I think Izzy (Israel Adesanya) was like that to some degree early on with his striking, which is why his fakes and his feints worked so well; people had to give that a lot of respect because of his background and experience, and Islam has shown that with his wrestling pedigree and the success he’s had there. People go into that fight and build a game plan around it, expect it, and to me, before the fight even starts, that’s a massive advantage for someone to have. Pair that on top of the fact that he’s really f****** good at everything else!
Kyte: That’s what I was going to say is that he’s not a one-dimensional guy. It’s not Merab (Dvalishvili) where you can say, “I’m gonna sell out to defend and then I’m okay on the feet with him.” With Islam, you can be ready for the wrestling and he’ll kick you upside the head.
Madden: It’s not Khabib. That’s the comparison sometimes, but when we look at those two side-by-side, Islam’s striking is miles above Khabib’s. They had different approaches to it, but Islam can punch really well, he can kick really well; his clinch game is phenomenal with the knees to the body and the head. He’s great everywhere. He’s not just good everywhere, he is great everywhere and in a sport like MMA where you have so many disciplines, a lot of times you have to pick what you’re really good at and shore up your weaknesses, but he’s one of the few that has been able to be great in every single facet of the game, and that is such a treat to watch.
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Kyte: I also think there are so few guys now where you have to prepare for them — normally it’s “we’re gonna focus on us, we’re gonna dictate; yes I need to be aware of what my opponent does, but I’m not building my game plan around that.”
He’s one of the few guys where you’ve kind of got to build a game plan around understanding where you can fit in around what he’s doing, and what he’s doing is pick your poison. You wanna grapple with him? Good luck. You wanna strike with him? You might have an edge, depending on who you are — Prates has more power; Michael Morales has tremendous range, big power. Ian has great range, but it’s not like he’s going out there and sniping guys.
Madden: He doesn’t really have that power for that size and that’s something you’re gonna want against a guy like this to get his respect. It’s really tough to build — and I know we’re gonna talk about this in a second with Path to Victory, but it’s really tough to build a game plan around “Don’t let this guy get ahold of you for 25 minutes.”
Kyte: Right! You can’t just tell someone, “Spend the entire fight not letting him connect his hands once.”
Madden: It’s a nightmare scenario. This is the recurring nightmare of you running from someone: you look back and they’re a little bit closer, a little bit closer, a little bit closer. This is that scenario.
Kyte: And he’s got 25 minutes to do it, and he maybe just needs one. It’s the old Demian Maia thing: it’s fine if you can keep him at range, keep him off you, but the minute his hands connect and he has you in his clutches, you’re hooped.
Madden: You’re in big trouble.
Islam Makhachev: 'I Will Beat Anderson Silva's Record' | UFC 330
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Islam Makhachev: 'I Will Beat Anderson Silva's Record' | UFC 330
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PATH TO VICTORY
Kyte: Okay, so what are the paths to victory here? Islam’s always just feels like, “Hey — take your pick!” Realistically though, it’s close the distance and turn this into a grappling match.
Madden: Exactly. When you go back and look at his fight with JDM (Jack Della Maddalena), that was his first fight up at welterweight, correct?
Kyte: Yep.
Madden: There were some questions surrounding that fight. JDM, by all accounts, is a phenomenal fighter, well rounded too — both stances, some really unorthodox stuff in there too — but Islam did what Islam does. I think he averaged one takedown per round, because that’s all it took. Each takedown was within the first two minutes of each round, and that was it, aside from JDM getting up maybe once. We know what the plan is and at this point — at this stage of your career, at this point in the sport, why are we looking to make any major changes? This plan — Father’s Plan — works against almost all and any opposition. Left, right, wrestler, grappler, striker… anybody. It doesn’t matter.
Kyte: The level is just that much better than yours. And you were right: he was 4-for-4 on takedowns in that fight; didn’t even attempt one in the second round, but when 4-for-4 and amassed 19 minutes of control time. In a 25-minute fight against a world champion, he goes 4-for-4 and gets four rounds of control time, against a guy that is a really good scrambler.
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Madden: And he just shut that down.
Kyte: Yeah; he had nothing.
Madden: Now when you talk about it specifically for this matchup — because there is a unique path for every opponent in front of you — this is the first time Islam is fighting someone as tall as Ian.
Kyte: Yeah; he’s 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4. Charles (OIiveira) and Dan Hooker are both six-feet tall and have a comparable reach but are different fighters; guys that are happy to come in and engage.
Madden: And Ian largely knows how to use his range effectively; his footwork shows that, his lead hand shows that, his kicks show that. For Islam, getting this fight to the fence is gonna be his strong suit. When a wrestler is fighting a kicker, your job is to follow the kicks in. I love my guy Archie Colgan — last week when he fought Usman (Nurmagomedov), his job was to follow the kicks in, and he was kind of swatting at the kicks and stepping back, and that allowed Usman to set up the question mark kick over the top of that. Any time someone is kicking, their leg has to retract back to their stance, and we follow that space in, close that space off of that, so I’m gonna be looking for Islam to do that. I am going to be interested in — we know in the middle of the cage, Islam likes his single leg entries, but again, distance is gonna be a different than he’s used to, so I’m interested to see if that’s gonna be part of the game plan or if it’s just pressure this guy and use the fence for the takedowns.
I have to imagine it’s gonna be a lot of body lock work against the fence, combined with the single leg to finish the takedown. I will be interested to see how much of his judo he uses against the fence with someone that is so much taller.
Kyte: Absolutely, and has really good balance.
Madden: And has really great balance, which Ian has shown in a lot of his fights. He’s done a pretty good job against a lot of the opponents that have taken him there. The wrestling is going to have to be chained together, but it’s not like Islam has an issue with that. I would expect more of the success in this fight to be against the fence where the distance can be negated. On the ground, I think being tall and rangy in fighting — in MMA in particular — has its pros and cons. Its pros are on the feet, and its cons are on the ground. When you have really long limbs and they’re extended away from your body, it can become a disadvantage against a really tight, compact grappler, so that might work against Ian if — not if, when he finds his shoulders on the canvas.
For Islam, the second he takes him down, we know what the plan is from there, but I do think that size difference is going to play a factor. I think Ian could be in more danger on the ground than other people because of the length of his limbs there.
Kyte: I think he’s gonna have better success keeping it upright because he’s able to get to that wide base, sink his hips, and has good judo, good balance, but yeah — once it gets down, then you’re in trouble. This is why I think it could be a tough fight to watch. I think this could end up being a lot of clinching where Islam is clearly winning the fight, but it’s not that action fight people are always looking for; it’s a grind in the clinch, Ian is defending well, and nobody comes away really beat up.
Madden: Yeah, it’s just 25 minutes of that. This matchup lends itself to that kind of outcome, unfortunately.
Kyte: And then for Ian? What’s he gotta do in order to pull off this win?
Madden: We talk about this all the time — it’s a geographical battle. In my opinion as a coach — we talked about it a minute ago with the boogeyman dream: we know Islam is going to wrestle — it’s not if, it’s when, so I would always rather force people to take shots they’re not ready for, at the angle they’re not quite ready for, at the distance they’re not ready for. That’s gonna give us a better chance of defending that initial entry, as opposed to us sitting back and waiting.
If Ian is within five steps of the cage, Islam is shooting, and by then, you’re reactive, so your goal has to be fighting in the middle of the cage…
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Kyte: Stay a foot or two in front of that black line.
Madden: That’s exactly right! Push Islam back, make him fight. Make him have to turn to you and reset every time. You almost have to make the cage smaller than it is. You have to have the fight almost exclusively inside that black line; that’s the area you’re allowed to work in. He needs to push him back. I love a high kick against a wrestler; it’s a kick you have to defend and you have to acknowledge. Ian has a good high kick; we’ve seen him use it well in multiple fights, so I think that’s gonna be a big piece to his game plan. The oblique kick — he has a lot of success with that too, so establishing that early will be helpful too, and something I think he had a lot of success with against Prates was the lead uppercut; he snuck that under Carlos’ lead arm really well, and if Islam is looking to shoot the head-outside single, that’s something he might be able to find and meet him with on the way in.
I think that’s a great shot because it comes from low to high; it’s something we would be using against someone who is looking to level-change anyway.
Kyte: Same as we always talk about: center line stuff, make him think about it. I guarantee in the first round he shows that knee at least twice.
Madden: He has to.
Kyte: Just turn the hip, glide it up there once or twice to say, “This is here.”
Madden: That’s it; just once or twice.
Neither of these game plans or paths to victory is overly complicated. Fighting to me is always rock, paper, scissors in terms of what is going to beat what, but it’s the execution of it over 25 minutes is what makes it difficult, especially against an opponent like Islam Makhachev. But this is why we watch it.
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Ian Machado Garry: 'I’m Confident Because Of Hard Work' | UFC 330
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X FACTOR
Kyte: If there is an X-factor in this fight, what it is?
Madden: Man, I think it has to be the body types and the size difference.
Kyte: Without a doubt.
Madden: Like I said before — and you said it too — it works even better on the feet, and it will be a factor in Ian having success on the feet with the range management and takedown defense, and then when they’re grappling, I think it’s going to work against Ian more than it might for other people. Jack (Della Maddalena) — you look at his body; a little more dense, a little more compact. (Alexander Volkanovski), same thing; the ability to defend is a little better on the ground. But Ian is so long, so lanky; that’s a field day for Islam on the ground in my opinion.
The height difference is going to be the X-factor in this fight, but it’s a double-edged sword depending on where the fight is taking place.
Kyte: I’m really interested to see — Islam has been making the jokes about “I’ve been running a lot more in camp because I’m going to have to chase him down,” so I’m really interested to see how that dynamic on the feet plays out. If there is a point where he says, “I’m spending a lot of energy trying to get inside, trying to get these takedowns that aren’t there or aren’t paying off” — kind of like Khazmat (Chimaev) against Sean (Strickland), right? “I’m spending a lot of energy trying to wrestle, but lemme see if I can just beat him on the feet.”
Whether that comes early, mid, not at all — I think that’s where it starts to get a little dangerous for him. I think he’s As across the board, but the range and the length and the diversity of Ian’s game make it to where if Islam is going to make a mistake or get caught, it’s there, exclusively. So I just wanna see if Ian can defend well enough to make this a different kind of fight.
COACHING CURIOSITY
Madden: This is my Coaching Curiosity for Islam! With the size difference, the weight, the height, how much respect is he going to give Ian on the feet? Like you just said, if he starts to force the wrestling because of the size discrepancy, it changes the entire fight. Ian is going to see it coming easier and therefore might have a faction more time to prepare the defense to stop it. That shifts the entire complexation of this fight if Islam says, “This guy is way too big for me to be standing here striking with.” This is the thing I’m paying attention to. Islam has had a lot of success striking, he’s looked good on the feet, against good strikers as well, but now he’s the smaller guy in the fight, so is his default wrestling going to come out immediately or is he going to have the confidence to stand and strike with Ian and let him into the fight more than he should.
Kyte: I’m looking at the same thing and it’s why I went back to look at the size of the guys he’s fought so far. Della Maddalena is compact, they’re mostly the same size, same height. Charles is a little taller, same reach as Ian, but looks to engage; Dan Hooker is the same thing, and they’re lightweights. This is a big kid you’re facing. If there is gonna be a point where we say, “The size is just too much; the weight class is just too much,” this might be it. And it always starts to show. As much as we love the guys going up and winning two belts, it’s showed in (Ilia) Topuria and Justin (Gaethje). A huge part of that fight is that Gaethje can look at him and it’s “I’ve been here for 15 years, you’ve been here for 15 minutes. I can take what you’ve got to give me and I’m just bigger and stronger overall.”
Islam has done the right things, gone up the right way adding mass, but you can’t change that you’re five-ten; can’t change that your reach is 70 inches.
Madden: Correct.
Kyte: This guy is six-four and a big lanky kid, and has been that his entire professional life, walks around probably in that 190, 200-pound range. His 190 is different than your 190.
Madden: Way, way different.
Kyte: And he’s used to that and you’ve been doing it for a year and a bit.
Madden: Yeah.
Kyte: It’s why I think this could be not the exciting fights we were getting from Islam, and I think we saw that against Della Maddalena. You’re able to find a way to talk about it from a dominance standpoint — I loved it because I like grappling and I like seeing dominant athletes be dominant, but I think this is going to be either Ian runs the whole time, constant movement where people are furious that he’s not engaging or we get that clinching along the fence for 25 minutes.
Madden: Yeah. A little bit of the Shavkat (Rakhmonov) fight for Ian.
Kyte: I’m really curious to see it because Ian is bulletproof mentally — there is nothing that bothers him, he’s happy to be himself, doesn’t care what you think, and I think that can serve him well here.
Madden: For sure. He doesn’t give a s***.
Kyte: He’ll fight exactly how he’s determined he needs to fight, and I’m sure there will be a little added motivation after Allan Nascimento’s passing and that team being back for the first time.
Madden: That’s a good point.
Kyte: I’m just really curious to see how this one actually plays out.
Madden: Me too, for sure.
UFC 330: Makhachev vs Machado Garry took place live from Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 15, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!