Athletes
Ian Machado Garry | Short-Notice Risk-Taker
Welterweight Rising Star Ian Machado Garry Is Not Shy To Take A Quick Fight As He Returns To Action This Weekend At UFC Kansas City: Machado Garry vs Prates On April 26, 2025
Ian Machado Garry is the first to tell you how good he is and how good he will be.
On his UFC.com athlete profile, the 27-year-old Irishman lists “ego” as his biggest strength, and while any human needs confidence to step into the Octagon, Machado Garry’s self-belief is something closer to his superpower. Through nine walks to the Octagon, he has pretty much backed up his words. He managed a small storm in his debut to score a first-round knockout at UFC 268 and then announced that he was the second coming of the Irish Takeover Conor McGregor started a decade ago. He bounced back from a rocket of a Song Kenan right hand with a slick knockout win, and then he predicted and scored a head kick knockout over Daniel Rodriguez two months later.
A trio of wins over Neil Magny, Geoff Neal and Michael “Venom” Page put him solidly in the Top 10, and when he couldn’t find the proper opponent for a few months, he raised his hand to take on Shavkat Rakhmonov on short-notice—a sentence that would appear less and less appealing with each word. And yet, Machado Garry faced the welterweight boogeyman with gusto, nearly finishing the undefeated contender late in the fight.
RELATED: Main Event Spotlight
It was a bold move, particularly when a fighter in his position might want to protect their undefeated record, but that’s not Machado Garry’s way, which makes him ideal for life in the UFC. Ideal because, instead of waiting for a top contender to give him a shot at the Top 5, Machado Garry is putting his position at risk taking on the red-hot Carlos Prates on about a month’s notice in Kansas City on April 26.
It's a wildly risky move for Machado Garry. Prates is coming off four consecutive knockout wins in his rookie campaign. The Brazilian is freshly in the rankings, meaning Machado Garry could tumble outside the Top 10 should he suffer defeat, but Machado Garry doesn’t really think like that.
Ian Machado Garry Fight Week Interview | UFC Kansas City
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Ian Machado Garry Fight Week Interview | UFC Kansas City
/
Instead, he sees opportunity. He saw an opportunity to hand Rakhmonov his first loss, and although unsuccessful, he certainly earned the respect of many for taking the assignment. The same is true here. Prates and his fellow Fighting Nerds are on absolute fire, but it’s also a fight where Machado Garry could essentially take all that momentum for himself with a win. It’s a veteran move from the 27-year-old. He has the time to bounce back should he suffer a secondconsecutive loss, but a win over the 31-year-old Brazilian is the kind of victory that reignites his hopes for a title shot sooner rather than later.
Whether someone loves or hates Machado Garry, two things are true: people care about what happens to him, and he absolutely loves everything there is to love about the fight game. If you have any doubts about his potential, just listen to one of his interviews: he’ll tell you how good he believes he is.
On April 26, he gets another chance to show everyone, too.
UFC Fight Night: Machado Garry vs Prates took place live from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri On April 26, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
Tags