Ian Machado Garry has threatened to silence Sean Strickland for calling his wife a “pedophile” among other insults.
Machado Garry returns to action this weekend against Geoff Neal at UFC 298 in his first appearance since months of online taunts and abuse, much of it directed at his family.
The Irishman, 26, and his wife Layla, 40, had their relationship spotlighted after it emerged she had previously written a short satirical book called ‘How to be a WAG’ more than a decade ago.
Layla laughed off the 11-page book – hitting back at those who called her a ‘gold digger’ – and the TV presenter said: ‘That satirical book, if you listen to it, is really stupid and anyone who takes it as fact, understood it completely. missed the mark.’
But that didn’t stop some trolls from insulting the couple, including some fellow MMA fighters.
Ian Machado Garry, pictured with his wife Layla and their son, hit back at his abusers
The Irishman remains undefeated and will face Geoff Neal at UFC 298 on Saturday
Layla’s satirical book resurfaced on social media last year, sparking online reactions
At UFC 298 media day, Machado Garry said, “Listen, we can take shots at each other all day, me and another guy, but here are the two things I’m going to point out: My wife was called a pedophile by Sean Strickland.
“No woman ever deserves to be called that. My son, the people who follow Sean Strickland, commented on some of my photos at the beginning of all this and said, “Is the kid even his?” I should never hear that. Those two things get to me emotionally.
‘I’m getting mine back. One day I’ll shut up Sean Strickland, and he won’t be able to do anything about it.
“I’ll talk to him, I’ll dance in his face, I’ll do whatever I want because the truth is, if we get locked in that cage one day, he’ll never be able to hang out with me again.”
Machado Garry continued, “Look, Sean Strickland is not the damn voice we should be listening to. He has a deep debt of trauma, and he should just shut up and try to deal with his own personal issues on his own, and that’s mainly where it came from.
“Certainly, there isn’t a single man on this planet who talks about my wife or my family like that and ultimately doesn’t understand. The truth is he will never be relevant again. He lost the belt. He has lost interest.
“There’s a point where I’ll get into a fight on short notice and then dance all over him. I’m way too fast. I’m way too talented, and he’ll just be missing.”
Strickland previously said, “Guys, I never talk about anyone’s husbands, but this isn’t right. It is not right. I need to talk about it.
Machado Garry has had his wife by his side throughout his entire run in the UFC thus far
UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland went so far as to call Layla a “sexual predator” in the trolling for which Machado Garry says the American will be punished.
Machado Garry has passed every test so far and defeated Neil Magny in style
“Ian Garry, I remember when I met you, dude, it was in New York… I remember thinking to myself, there’s something not right about that girl.
‘Now I find out you’re 26, she’s 40 damn. The ex-husband lives with you, you took the last name.
“Mother****** she wrote a book on how to be a WAG, I didn’t know what a WAG was until now dude. This fucking isn’t right dude, she’s a succubus. You gotta run, buddy.”
Rumors also circulated online that Richard Cullen, Layla’s first husband, who is believed to have been part of Garry’s team as a nutritionist since 2021, was still living with the couple.
However, Layla also addressed it and quickly debunked it.
“Some of the things people say are that my ex-husband lives with us,” she said. ‘No he does not! And no, he never did that. You just make that up.’
Another fighter who taunted Machado Garry was Colby Covington, a fellow welterweight who the Irishman wants to fight next if he can get past Neal.
He continued, “I want to beat Geoff Neal in spectacular fashion this weekend, then I’m going to fight Colby Covington, and I’m going to retire him, and I’m going to put the clown out of the UFC.
“Then I take someone (ranked) three, two or one in the world, I beat him and next year I earn my title shot.”
Garry says he will fight Colby Covington (left) and send him into retirement, and Strickland (right) is also on his hit list
“I don’t think (Colby) has any other choice. When I beat Geoff Neal on Saturday, there was only one choice, and that was what I said.”
On verbal sparring before the events, Machado Garry says it should only involve the fighters and never involve family.
“There’s a line,” he explained. ‘There is a line between what you say and what you do, and it is not nonsense to call my wife a pedophile, or to say that my child is not even mine. That’s not nonsense. That’s abuse. That’s horrible, and no human on this planet deserves that.
“I feel like we’ve seen it recently, and the two main culprits are Colby and Sean Strickland. Colby brings up Leon (Edwards) and Sean’s father being nothing but negative towards every possible person. It shows a very dark time in MMA. This is not what sports are about.”