It has been a long week for Ian Garry and his team. Following the controversy surrounding him and his wife, Layla Machado Garry (previously Anna-Lee), Ian has worded his response. Notably, the Irishman also hinted at wanting to fight one UFC champion in particular.
For those unaware, Garry has had a rough week, to say the least. Following reports of his getting kicked out of gyms and getting KOed by Shavkat Rakhmonov in training, things were looking bad. However, things got worse after people began digging into his 14-year-old wife and their private life.
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Safe to say, it wasn’t a good look for ‘The Future,‘ coming into UFC 296 later this month. Although he had mostly remained quiet on the situation, he finally decided to put out a video. In what can be seen as a ‘response,’ Garry can be heard saying, “The more people talk, more people talk, the harder I work. I’ve got more people to prove wrong. It’s not fuelling me, it’s p***ing me off. Might have to win a middleweight world title, before I win the welterweight (one).”
Interestingly, despite all the hate, trolling and ridicule sent his way, Garry chose to single out one person in particular. For the most part, MMA media online has been rampant, digging up new, alarming details about Garry’s relationship with his wife. However, the Irishman, instead of addressing any of those things, hinted at wanting to fight middleweight champion, Sean Strickland.
Ian Garry has his sights set on Sean Strickland
Since some may find the matter slightly puzzling, let’s try and do a more thorough recap. Amidst the flurry of information coming out about Garry, Sean Strickland was one of the first fighters to comment on the situation. Whilst ‘Tarzan‘ did not say anything bad about the Irishman himself, he did have some colorful language for his wife.
Naturally, Ian did not take it well and reached out to Strickland to try and solve the matter privately. Notably, the 26-year-old also warned Strickland of a potential lawsuit coming his way as well. As for Strickland himself, he has been very clear with his message and motive. The UFC middleweight champ wanted to ‘save‘ Garry from his ‘succubus, WAG wife.’
Yep………. The succubus doing her demon work….. Idk how the MMA community let this BS slide https://t.co/iEVlJ9uQz3
— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) November 29, 2023
Further, Strickland himself delved into some of the actions of Layla Anna-Lee. Notably, Strickland pointed out how it was the 40-year-old’s idea to have t-shirts with Geoff Neal’s mugshot. Although the fight did not transpire, it was still a very devious idea, one that was entirely cooked up by Ian’s wife. As such, many have criticized her hypocrisy in wanting to file lawsuits whilst making t-shirts with mugshots and branding Neil Magny as a child-beater.
With that said, Sean has been very vocal about Ian’s ‘predator‘ and had some NSFW comments on how he should treat her. As a result, it is understandable why Garry now wants a grudge match against Strickland. Despite his intentions to fight the middleweight champ, Garry will first have to make short work of Vicente Luque and put in an impressive performance. Following that, a potential fight against Strickland would be something that the fans would love to see.