Ian Machado Garry explains post-UFC 285 fan altercation: ‘I was just going to drop them and go if he came close to me’

Ian Machado Garry nearly got two knockout victories this past weekend.

On Saturday, Garry secured a comeback win at UFC 285, knocking out Song Kenan in the third round after getting dropped in the first. The win was the eleventh of the Irish welterweight’s career and his fourth inside the octagon. But afterward, the former Cage Warriors champion nearly added another win outside the octagon when he nearly came to blows with an unnamed party.

In a clip that made the internet rounds after Saturday, Garry is seen exchanging words with a man who is posturing combatively – and appears to have no idea what Garry does for a living.

Speaking Ariel Helwani on Monday, Garry explained exactly what happened and revealed just how close the situation came to blows.

“This f****** loser,” Garry said on The MMA Hour. “I’m sitting there with my whole team. I’m sitting there with about eight or nine people, and [UFC fan] grandma Khabib came up to me and was like, ‘Hey, Ian! Can I have a photo?’ Of course you can. So we start talking and she’s chatting … and while I’m chatting with her, I just hear this guy shouting and screaming, coming through where all the cars were.

“[He said], ‘Bro, that’s the easiest f****** [$50,000] I’ve ever made in my life! I’m f****** awesome!’ He’s just screaming and shouting, and I don’t know if he’s off his face or what he’s doing, but then he just bumped into me. And I just turned around to him and went, ‘Hey, relax.’ And he goes, ‘Or what?!’ And I go [adopts an expression of incredulity], and I just laugh. I just start laughing and looking at him like, ‘Sorry?’

‘Or what?! I’m a fighter. I do this s***!’ [I said], ‘Oh really? Really? You do this s***?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, you don’t want any of this smoke!’ And then his fat little mate just stood there in his f****** pink blazer going, ‘Yeah, you don’t want any of this,’ and I’m like, ‘Ha!’

“Meanwhile, [my wife] Layla is just standing in front of me with the baby going, ‘Ian, if you do anything, you’ll lose your visa, you won’t be able to fight here.’ And I’m eyeballing this guy at this point, and Layla is like, ‘Is he moving?’ [I said], ‘No, and if he moves a step closer, I’m going to f****** kick him in the balls,’ and I start emptying my pockets, because the way he looked, it looked like he was on coke or something, because he wasn’t thinking.

“So I just slowly empty my pockets, and [I was] trying to pass it back, because I was just going to drop [him] and go if he came close to me.”

Fortunately, that situation didn’t come to pass – no punches were thrown and the situation subsided peacefully. Garry went on his way and continued his post-fight celebrations. But, Garry said, that random stranger doesn’t know how close he came to being in a very bad way.

“I’m here with all my friends and family,” Garry said. “My wife’s there, my baby’s there, I’ve got my nutritionist, I’ve got my strength and conditioning coach, I’ve got teammates, I’ve got management there. If this guy is going to look at me like that, and try to be a d***, in front of all these people — I can hear people going, ‘Does this guy f****** know who he’s talking to?’ There’s no way he knew, because if he did, he would have s*** himself. But he was off his face.

“I’ve never been in a fight outside the octagon because I’m too smart, but it took everything in me, with the way he was eyeballing me, not to go at him. It was like he wanted to kill me the way he looked at me, and I was like, I’m going to put you unconscious if you take one step forward. One step forward or say one more word, I’m going to end you. But I had to keep my coo

“Just stand there, look him in the eyes, if he wants to d*** measure, at the end of the day there’s no way he’s going to win, so leave him be. I’m sure he went off and had a great night.”