MMA Fighting - Emergency Reaction: Ian Machado Garry No-Shows UFC 296 Media Day Amid Controversies

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

UPDATE: Garry has withdrawn from his UFC 296 matchup against Vicente Luque after falling ill on Wednesday night. * * Ian Machado Garry is the talk of Las Vegas, but for all the wrong reasons. This Sat...urday, Machado Garry faces Vicente Luque on the main card of UFC 296 in Las Vegas amid swirling controversies around his personal and professional life. Earlier this week, Machado Garry invited this opportunity, saying he was going to stick it to his "haters" by beating Luque and continue to rise up the ranks, but on Wednesday, "The Future" gave his haters ample ammunition for talking trash when he skipped out on the UFC 296 Media Day. What just happened and what does this mean for Machado Garry's future? MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and Alexander K. Lee discuss. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?
Starting point is 00:00:46 The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.
Starting point is 00:01:28 It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, breaking news has arrived. Arguably, arguably the biggest news of this month. UFC 296 Media Day just went down for all but one competitor because in what maybe we should have seen coming, but nonetheless is probably a bad move overall.
Starting point is 00:02:36 Ian Machado Gary declined to show up to the UFC 296 Media Day. And so we've decided to do a little reaction pod. This is animefine.com. Of course, you know the website. It's terrific. I am Jed Mishu, and joining me to talk all things Ian Gary and this story that try as we might to ignore or to maybe not focus on. It just keeps coming. And joining me today, Alexander Kaylee, our Ian Gary expert here at mhmapfiting.com.
Starting point is 00:03:08 And, AK, let's just get right into this. Because some of this is going to be you explaining some stuff to me. I have been involved or at least aware of, but trying to keep arms. distance. But before we get into any of the surrounding Ian Gary drama, the big question, what is your initial reaction? Like, what was it when when it heard like, hey, Ian and Gary might not be shown up today. So we should, we should let people know. I believe Ian and Machado Gary was supposed to be the first fighter to show up at the. I believe he was scheduled for 1130. Yeah. That's what I believe his time was. Yeah. Ian Machado, Gary was to be the first man up.
Starting point is 00:03:49 So him not showing up right away raised eyebrows But this happens all the time at media days It doesn't always go on the run Yeah the run sheet order Actually I would say it almost never does I would say it almost never goes in exactly the run sheet order So we're like oh maybe he'll come out after Wonderboy He'll come out after Patty Pimblet
Starting point is 00:04:06 After like Alexandra Pantosia showed up before him Then we're kind of like Okay this is a bit weird And especially since there had been so much talk about Which again we really still need to sort of dig into But there have been so much talk about Gary's career and his personal life lately. And we thought, like, maybe there's, like, you know, media day isn't going to be his favorite day this week. There is still a press conference on Thursday.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Again, we'll touch upon that as well. But, yeah, the initial reaction was, is he avoiding some of the heat? Is he trying to minimize some of the heat that he's going to be getting from fighters, fans, media, whoever, over all this recent drum. that is surrounding. I use drama loosely, personally, but maybe it's... No, I think drama is the appropriate word here. And let's get into that because I've got a number of other questions about stuff. But I think drama is the right word because I'm not here to tell you that this drama is reasonable.
Starting point is 00:05:06 And I think we'll sort of discuss our views on kind of how things have unfolded. But I think it is undeniably drama. I mean, this has been one of the primary movers and shakers in the, may news cycle over these past couple of weeks. Despite, I think, certainly in my opinion, and I'll go out on a limb and say in yours as well, despite they're not being a ton of merit to this, there's some real tabloid-esque stuff going on, but it does appear to be a huge focal point. So let's get into that for a moment.
Starting point is 00:05:38 I'm going to ask for a little bit of assistance from you, because I was trying to craft a timeline as we were like, as it came out, hey, we want to do a reaction to this, trying to put together a timeline like i didn't realize that people didn't really like eing gary until this past month i like that that somehow went over my head and best i can figure out is the first sort of things that started happening were when gary left renegade the gym where leon edwards is that sort of fallout and that wasn't the cleanest breakup but you know we've certainly seen worse in the sport uh is that am i correct in saying that's kind of where the initial Ian Gary drama started.
Starting point is 00:06:19 Yeah, I think that's where the substantial drama may have started. He definitely has already earned his fair share of quote unquote haters on the way up just because he's a young fighter. He came in with sort of a lot of hype. Some would say unwarranted. He's young and Irish and people compare him to Conno McGregor all the time. There's the Connor McGregor comparisons, which he has fully embraced. And I think wisely so, has wisely embraced those comparisons.
Starting point is 00:06:43 He did the Billy Walk after one of his wins, which again, made some people love him, made some people hate him. But that's kind of where you want to be in this business. So he has embraced his healed him. But yeah, there's nothing really substantial until a lot of these rumors, not rumors, sorry, reports, comments from fighters talking about him, you know, maybe a little bit of a disruptive presence that some of the gyms he's trained at, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:03 maybe not mostly the most well-liked partner. Maybe not people not fond of his very busy social media proclivities to say. But yes, I think that might be where. started. So, and then as you kind of pointed out, here, here's where I realize that, oh, this is a thing that we're going to be talking about for a hot minute. Like, this is, this is now a narrative that is going to, for better or worse, stick with him. And it is, of course, the Sean Strickland sort of tweets. And I want to be real clear, I don't, I'm not sure that Sean Strickland is like the guy who started this particular line of thought or whatever, but certainly the biggest signal
Starting point is 00:07:41 boost that kind of amplified this whole sort of salacious thing about IMA Chado Gary, his wife, his personal life, his children, this kind of weird stuff that happened. So, A.K., give me the briefest rundown on where, like, what that is about and why that happened from Sean Strickland, who does not compete in the same weight classes as Murchato Gary. So even before Strickland, I believe this drama, this gossip, gossip's really better term. sort of started to spread during PFL championship weekend. Did you have C, they didn't have a card that weekend or they had a weak card? They had no card.
Starting point is 00:08:19 They had no card. They had no card. So it was, to put it nicely, with respect to the PFL, PFL, PFL, PFL, a tour. It was a slow news weekend. I actually don't quite know the source over the rumor. I believe it was a random Twitter account. Not necessarily someone with any sort of, like, reputation or established knowledge of the business or established knowledge of these fighters' lives, but somehow it started getting out that, one,
Starting point is 00:08:45 and this is a fact that IMA Chado Gary's wife, Layla, when she was working for some magazine, well, she kind of filled this info in later. She was running for a magazine. They wrote this, I would have to imagine, I've not read it myself, clearly satirical thing, how to become a wag, which is a wife and or girlfriend of a famous athlete,
Starting point is 00:09:05 it's a more common term over in England, I guess parts of Europe and typically refers to footballers, soccer players. Those are those, there's whole websites dedicated to football, soccer player, wags.
Starting point is 00:09:19 And yeah, it's a whole thing over there. So this was apparently something they wrote to kind of wrote and recorded just to sort of play up on that. It's 11 pages long. I mean, it's 11 pages long. I think it's also a full blown novel.
Starting point is 00:09:30 It is not a big. It's an epic book. Stephen King's tomb. So we're clear. I have a piece coming out. next week that is longer than that. And it's available on Amazon.com.
Starting point is 00:09:42 So this thing exists. There is this thing exists. And then people brought that up and said, oh, my gosh, does she rope in? Ian Machado, Gary was this was her whole plan to rope him in? Then this other rumor comes in that her ex-husband is living with them. He is a nutritionist, I believe. And then somehow it became that he's their nutritionists and that he's living, or is Ian, Ian's nutritionist and that he's living with it?
Starting point is 00:10:02 So that's the rumor. I have no idea if this is true or not, but sort of how this all, going down the Reddit stuff. It is that her ex-husband is his nutritionist. And then as these things do, it immediately turned. I mean, well, I would say turn. We're already in the deeply sorted awful context of everything. But there seems to be no basis for it. I mean, I don't understand why the rumor is coming out. I think it might be connected to the name chain because then people started saying, oh my gosh, he took her ex-husband's name, which is not true. Her maiden name is Machado. So he took her maiden name. I don't know what her ex-husband's.
Starting point is 00:10:37 name is. I remember she used to go. Richard Cullen. Okay, Richard Cullen. She used to go by Lela Anna Lee. So I don't know if that was connected somehow. But yeah, I just believe Lela Anna Lee was. So she was a television personality. And like she is a well-known television personality in England or whatever. I think that was her stage name. But as you mentioned, Richard Cullen, you can Google Layla Machado Gary, Lina Annalie husband, husband, husband, husband's husband, and you'll find older articles by who she's married to. So the Machado thing, him taking, Ian, allegedly taking her ex-husband's name, completely fabricated. As far as the ex-husband living with them or working as nutritious, I have no idea, but I have seen no basis for it. And yes, and then Sean Strickland steps in, gets to a bit of a social media beef. Ian Machado Gary kind of just mentions that he responds to someone else about it.
Starting point is 00:11:22 I can't remember the other party who responded to. But Sean Strickland says that Ian Machado Gary is starting to sue him. I think it was Strickland who posted supposed DMs from Machado Gary saying that he's going to sue him for slander. You're a lawyer. What is this? What's the public? Oh, defamation of character. Sorry, defamation of character.
Starting point is 00:11:41 So that's really what got it going. Chris Curtis, Strickland's buddy, kind of stepped into defend Ian Machado, Gary, then couldn't deal with all the trolls. So he's like, you know what, I'm just going to take a pause. He did the healthiest thing possible and said, I'm taking a pause with social media. But yes, it is mostly rooted in this beef with Strickland.
Starting point is 00:11:58 And the latest we hear from Strickland was he was like, listen, I ran to Ian Machado Gary in the Performance Institute, and if I see him again, I'm just saying we might have to settle things like, you know, we're going to settle things with hands as fighters do. And that's kind of how it's gone. And now today we have an Ian Machado Gary no show. So let's get back to that because now we've at least given the context and I feel,
Starting point is 00:12:19 at least to some extent, like I had the story right or most of it. Because I do think there is another piece of this that is relevant to this discussion here. And it's that, well, again, I think most of this is tabloid nonsense, right? stuff that really is a low bar, but it's beneath even us as MMA people. The issue here is that Ian Machado Gary this week has sort of embraced the counter side of this, you know, dropping a video saying, I'm going to stick it to all the haters and stuff. And he has, he has not allowed this to die on the vine, as it were, or to just ignore it. And now today, he comes up and he misses his media day.
Starting point is 00:13:03 media day is a media day. And to me, AK, that's what the, that is my first initial reaction because you mentioned earlier. They still got a presser this week. The presser, that's an open forum. They're going to be fans like in attendance.
Starting point is 00:13:18 It's going to be a big room of people who several of them have already said like awful stuff about him. And I think it is pretty clear that while there are multiple storylines going on at UFC 296, right? There's a lot of stuff that could happen. I would be absolutely shocked if Colby Covington isn't up there talking about Ian McChry or whatever. Like that's how that's going to work. And so to me, I was really shocked that he missed this.
Starting point is 00:13:46 And because the media day is just media. It's just a bunch of people doing a media scrum. And he may have to field a question or two, but we both know. It's not like the NBA media is the hardest hitting of journalists things in this regard. So are you at all surprised at all surprised at that. this is the thing he chose to miss as opposed to the press conference. Yeah, I mean, because you also, listen, there was also Patty Pimblit's going to be at the press conference tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:14:12 He might have something to say about it. The person he's fighting, Vicente Lucke has kind of already commented. He's too nice to say anything bad, but. Vicente Louca smelling like roses in this whole thing. Just, yeah, trained with him. Good dude. Like, is a very nice man when I've been around him. I got nothing bad to say.
Starting point is 00:14:26 What a gentleman. He's who's actually fighting Ian Machado Gary on Saturday, which is somewhat lost on us. And Leon Edwards, as we said, has commented multiple times. Yeah, our gym just straight up kicked them out. So I'm sure that would come up as well. Yeah, today would have been a nice spot for Ian Machado, Gary and his team to sort of, I think, do a bit of damage control, to be able to just have control of the mic and say what they want to say, address it, don't address it, however they want to handle it, change the subject, change the topic, change the narrative.
Starting point is 00:14:55 There's a lot of good stuff that could have been done today. Now, I feel like we've gone too far, though, without saying we do not know why. most importantly, we don't know why he is not at Media Day today. I said no show, which is just literally just didn't show up. But there could be a very good reason. All of the quick skim of social media, Jed, this might not surprise. So by the way, the official word from UFCPR is that Ian Gary will not be available today. That is UCPR's official response.
Starting point is 00:15:24 Very simple. Doesn't go into anything. You're correct. We don't know why. But the truth of it is, and the truth of it is, and the truth of this reaction pot is that everyone is going to draw the same conclusions. Now, whether those are true or not, again, we can't say. But the same conclusion is being drawn across the MMA sort of universe at this point in time.
Starting point is 00:15:46 And so I think it's fair to go from that to ask the question that all of the fans and the people listening to this are going to be thinking to themselves. Is this getting to Ian Machado, Gary? Is this whole fight week? because that was part of it. You know, I recorded No Betts Bar with Connor Berks earlier this week, and we talked about this fight and said, I'm really interested because I think the way he has responded to this,
Starting point is 00:16:11 Ian Machado Gary is going to show up as his best form. I feel like he has a little bit of that F-View vibe to him, and if sort of these circumstances will bring out the best in him. But I don't actually know that. And with this, this is such an odd maneuver. And from him, particularly a guy who likes the microphone, likes the attention to willingly forego it. Do you think that this is a sign that he is assuming that nothing is wrong,
Starting point is 00:16:36 that there's not a real reason? Yes, I do you think that this is getting to him? Jed, we cannot strongly preface this enough that if it's all speculation, if there's something that is that, uh, some emergency familial, personal, professional, whatever, some emergency that he has had to address that all of this is like, it doesn't matter. We're not, you know, I don't mean to question you know, I'm Chaldaarry's character because, yeah, it could be something serious.
Starting point is 00:16:59 It could be a very good reason to not be able to show up to mediate today. So let us have that hanging over all this, any speculation that we choose to make. But regarding the question of, is it getting to him? I don't see how it couldn't. I think he told our own Damon Martin in a recent interview. He's fearing for the safety of his family. These are his words. I fear for the safety of my family with all of the S word that's been going on.
Starting point is 00:17:27 he cussed in his his quote you don't just say something like that like it might maybe he's just being dramatic maybe he's one of those people that just you know he lives on social media and this is the only way he knows it expressed things anymore but you don't just say you're fearing for the safety of your family
Starting point is 00:17:41 unless something really is getting to it and honestly I wouldn't blame him I wouldn't blame him people can say he brought it upon himself which he has in some ways I'm not defending everything Ian Machado Gary has done I thought the Jeff Neal mugshot thing was super cheap and I'm sure there's other things he said that I wouldn't agree with. So I'm not saying he's no saint in all this.
Starting point is 00:18:00 He is part of, he's, he's playing the game. He's playing the game, Jed. And playing the game means taking some of these shots, unfortunately. Again, are some of these shots at him fair? Are some of these shots that him warranted? Maybe, maybe not. But I do think, regardless of the validity of some of the hits that he's taking, it's getting to him.
Starting point is 00:18:17 I think it is getting to him. I think he knows the big fight he has a head. I think he wants to focus on it. So whether or not, that's the reason he was out today. I do think that Imachado Gary is a human being. I think he's pretty good at this MMA trash talk thing but I think with the amount of heat that's come down on him in the past few weeks, even he's had to take a little bit of a step back
Starting point is 00:18:37 and say, okay, let me recalibrate. Let me recalibrate here and let me figure out how we're going to tackle this and then let's go from there. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo, great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games
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Starting point is 00:19:27 Conditions apply One more real big question before we get to kind of our close out here and it's just I mean you kind of alluded to it and what you were talking about right there he has invited some of this on to him his actions and that has certainly been one of the big responses from sort of people
Starting point is 00:19:49 even prior to this when the Sean Strickland again I can't speak to the validity of the quote unquote leaked DMs one of the like the biggest response was, dude, Ian Gary, you're out here talking all this trash and you're getting Neil Magni not to have custody of his children, which is a whole separate thing that I don't entirely agree with either, but you're putting mugshots on T-shirts and then somebody comes at you with that same sort of energy and now you're threatening to sue. That's a punk move. Like that, that was a very
Starting point is 00:20:20 widespread thing. And this, I mean, this is exactly in that, that line of thinking at least for, hey, you have released this week a video saying you're going to shut up all the haters and you can dish it, but you can't take it out. That feels like that is starting to build a narrative around him. And so my question is, is this, how is this going to affect him, not personally, but how is this going to affect the brand of Ian Gary as he is trying to become the next Connor McGregor? You know, like that is, he's explicitly stated that's sort of a thing that he wants to do. He is trying to reach those levels. Connor never had anything like this at this stage of his career. How is this going to affect him
Starting point is 00:21:06 with the broader fan base? MMA is so weird because, you know, you make the show. You were the maker of the show. Damn, they were good, which we do because we feel like fans forget things too easily. They forget eras. They forget fighters' primes. But they have an incredibly airtight memory when it comes to. meme worthy criticisms of a fighter. People's, I, Habib and the Tiram Asu, Mackenzie Dern and her and her accent, these will live on for eternity. People just don't forget.
Starting point is 00:21:41 They just cannot move on from these things. A fighter can win. The greatest controversies in the history of the sport, you just mentioned. Yeah, it's so silly. And that's going to, this is going to follow Ian Machado Gary for the rest of his career. He can win a UFC title. There's still going to be people, I think, inappropriately bringing up. his personal life or whatever his relationship with his wife, which again, I don't see anything
Starting point is 00:22:02 strange about it at all, but I'm one person. The MMA mob has got their hooks into this story. You can tell them this is true, this isn't true, this is a lie, this isn't a lie. They don't care. They don't care. They are amused. Most importantly, they are amused by these rumors, and that's all that matters. And now they don't want to know anymore. They don't want to read an in-depth report about it. They don't want the rumors to be clear. They love this idea now that Ian Machado Gary is some kept man who was roped
Starting point is 00:22:35 into this marriage by a sinister reporter, a sinister reporter slash manager. I think it's super gross. I hate it so much. But again, that's me. That is not the greater MMA fan base. So, and I like to think the majority of the fans also don't care about
Starting point is 00:22:50 this stuff, but there is a vocal minority who will keep this thing alive and will stoke these fires forever. it doesn't mean he can't become a big star it doesn't mean he can't become the next conmer gregar blah blah all that stuff he certainly can but even connor gregar has stuff that will follow him forever
Starting point is 00:23:05 and eunuchar gary is going to be the same way so it's a little it's a little dent in the brand but a big win on Saturday will make a lot of that go away so you know hopefully we can all just focus on I don't know man I don't know like I would love to live in this world that you are hoping exists but and I feel even a little grimy
Starting point is 00:23:26 saying it like this, but I, like, this is, this is my truth, you know, the optics here are just horrific. Like, they are, they are really, really bad. And even if he comes out and he puts on the best performance of his career and he beats Vicente Lucke, I think people will have a lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of people will have the same thoughts of, yeah, he's a very good fighter. But man, I hate him. And I'm not sure. Maybe that works out because I also, I have a question. in circle tier that I don't think is true, but I just wanted to raise it as just, you know, on the off chances. Like, is this actually just a crafted maneuver by him? He knows if he doesn't turn up. This is just a great heel turn for him. We're talking about it. We wouldn't have done a podcast.
Starting point is 00:24:10 We wouldn't have done a podcast. It is easily a bigger new story that he did not show up to this, as opposed to showing up and answering fielding questions from reporters. So I think there is maybe a world where he is savvy enough to recognize that and that this is a big brain. play, but I am really not sure that this is going to work out for him in the way that it's hard to be a heel in combat sports. Like not a lot of people have pulled that off marketably. Yes, everyone always quick to point. People love to tune in to watch Floyd Mayweather lose. Give me another example. Like, give me another example in non-wrestling. I know it's, I know that's a try and true maneuver in pro wrestling. Give me another example in boxing or
Starting point is 00:24:56 MMA where people were dropping money to watch dudes lose. It is not common. Floyd is the exception to the rule. And so if this is to get heat and to become a villain, maybe that helps him at some point, but it's a heck of a lot easier to just be over with the fan base man. So I got a lot of questions on if this is going to help him or I think this is going to hurt him. But we've talked a lot about this.
Starting point is 00:25:22 So let's just end it on one because this, I mean, we've already given 20 minutes to this. Yeah, can I say, oh, go ahead. Yeah, you have one last question? I want to go out on it. So if you have something else, please raise it now. But I have one question I would like to ask you as we ask.
Starting point is 00:25:35 I'll just say it's funny. You make a good point that it might matter more that he missed Media Day than that he shows up on Fight Night. It puts on impressive performance, which is so backwards. It matters way more. It's not how this business should work, but I feel like you are right. And that hurts me. It matters way more.
Starting point is 00:25:53 And honestly, I do think. To follow that thought out, I think that if your goal here is I'm, I'm going to try and turn this into negative heat, I'm going to try and be the bad guy, which maybe isn't wrong, given sort of how the inertia is moving anyway, maybe you just got to lean in, like, lean into that. If I was advising him, I would say, if you want to do it, here's what you do. You skip media day. You show up to the presser because the headlines coming out of skipping media day will be you skipped media day, which is true. That is what is happening as we speak. We don't know why yet. We don't know why.
Starting point is 00:26:27 If you skip the presser, too many other stuff is going to happen. It will be a part of it. But that presser is going to have Colby saying something probably a little bit racist or whatever. Like it's going to have other things going on that could kind of mute it. But you skip media day, you show up to the presser, you are probably going to be central to the biggest thing coming out of that. So if your goal is strictly to get the. most people talking about you this fight week. This may have actually been a really good move to do that.
Starting point is 00:26:59 Now, again, I'm not sure that that's long-term brilliant, but it's a whole separate issue. The last question I have, though, is related to all of this as we exit. And, AK, it's real simple. Is he going to show up to the presser tomorrow? Is he and Gary going to skip all the media this week and just fight? Or is he going to show up tomorrow and deal with will be an increased amount of backlash at this point if he shows up to the press? Yes, he will show up to the presser. And this goes if, if we think that he and his team have plotted this so well, like we said,
Starting point is 00:27:33 that he's missed out on Media Day knowing that it would generate this kind of buzz, again, the kind of buzz that has recording a podcast about it, and that knowing that it's a bigger deal now if he shows at the press conference, and if he shows up, and, like, as we predicted, oh, Comptain is going to take a shot on him, Pimble is going to take a shot at him, maybe Leon Edwards takes a shot at him. him and his team can spin that as wow we showed up on a card with two title fights and everybody was talking about us he's already said this before he's already said this on other cards he's fought on he's like oh wow i'm i'm the most talked about fighter on the card which i don't think was even close to being true it was i think it was another sometimes you just tell lies and hope they work out you know you say them enough listen we mentioned connor mcgregor you say them enough and people believe them um so if they spin it that way if we do even if he's getting booed off the stage and everyone's just shout and bullying and poking up, they can really sell that as I was the star of the show. I was the most talked about fighter, and that matters a lot in this business. And the last thing I just will say again is I hope everything's okay with Ian Machado
Starting point is 00:28:33 Gary, because then that kind of goes along with my answer. If he shows up tomorrow, that means hopefully whatever happened today was nothing serious, everything's fine. Because if he doesn't show up, then again, I want his, he's going to take a lot of crap. And too, I would be worried that I don't know. Maybe it's something going on. So hopefully, Ian McChalgarie, if you're out there, everything is all right, and we're just speculating about nothing. And we see him at the press conference and we see him on fight night.
Starting point is 00:28:57 I kind of want to re-record this whole thing now, AK, because as we talk through this, I think that this is intentional now. I'm going to wildly speculate and say that this is all it. Because as you were talking through that scenario right there, my mind just turned to one thing. It's very simple. They're at the press conference tomorrow. Leon maybe takes a slighter jab at him as a former teammate and yeah we had to kick him out of Renegade. Colby goes fricking handbone on him because it's Colby Covington. Saturday comes around and Shafkat Rachmanov, he beat Stephen Wonderboy Thompson and buddy Shafkat
Starting point is 00:29:34 Rachmanov is a problem and a half. But Ian Gary goes out there and he thumps up Vicente Lucay and when the UFC is looking at it and they say, all right, the winner of Leon versus Colby, who are they defending against? who's next in line. Shafkat is this wonderkin. We all love him. But Shavkot says four words when a microphone is in front of him. It is sometimes it is honestly comically hard to watch him do interviews.
Starting point is 00:29:59 Two of them today were horse milk. I want you to factor that in. I want you to factor that in. It's tough, man. His MMA hour interview, he just, it's not what he's doing. So the U.C. can look at this and say, we can give Leon and or Colby a fight against Shavkat, who they don't even probably want to fight because it's freaking Shavkat. And the hardcore fans will love that, but that is not there.
Starting point is 00:30:21 Or we have all this footage from the presser of Leon and Ian going back and Colby and Ian. This is, I think this might, I've talked to myself into this being a brilliant maneuver that's going to make Saturday's fight for Ian Gary a title fight. And so all of you haters out there who are listening to this and be like, that guy's a punk, we hate him. Just know that this man, the future is playing 3D chess right now. And as such, we now have essentially a number one contenders fight opening the main card of UOC 296 because of all the machinations of Ian Machado, Gary. He got us.
Starting point is 00:31:02 He got us, Jen. Hooked us. I mean, what a brilliant play. Save this record. This recording is going into the archives. So when this does happen, I will be proven correct. in my read of this situation. It took us a while to get there,
Starting point is 00:31:16 but AK, thank you for hopping on to do this ReactPod and sort of talk through the big news of the day and thus far the big news of the week. For you at home, thanks for tuning in. Make sure you keep it locked to mivinefine.com. We're going to have all the coverage of this and every other thing coming out of UFC 296.
Starting point is 00:31:33 We've got boots on the ground. Jake Paul's fighting this week. A whole host of stuff is happening. So keep it locked to the enemy fighting web page and the enemy fighting podcast and they're writing YouTube. We're doing it all. We love you so very much.
Starting point is 00:31:47 Talk to you soon. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

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