Vicente Luque and Ian Machado Garry have made it pretty clear it’s just business when they meet inside the octagon at UFC 296 on Dec. 16. “The Silent Assassin” and “The Future” have trained together at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, and Luque guarantees their relationship will remain intact regardless of what happens in Las Vegas.
The welterweight duo shared on social media a clip of the audio messages they exchanged after agreeing to fight in December, and Luque explained, speaking on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocação Franca, the story behind Garry’s final comment, mentioning “I owe you food afterward because of that submission.”
“Ian is always joking around,” Luque said. “When he’s on the mat, he’s always joking around and talking. In one of those occasions, we were training grappling — and he’s married to a Brazilian and he loves Brazilian food, rice, beans and picanha. He loves a Brazilian restaurant here [in Florida], and he said we had to go there. And he’s like, ‘You know what? Let’s roll now now. If you submit me, I owe you lunch, and if I submit you, you have to buy me lunch.’
“I’m like, ‘I love to eat, I love to compete, so let’s do it.’ We had a competitive session and I ended up submitting him. I don’t remember if it was a rear-naked choke, a D’arce choke, something like that, but it was a choke, one of my best positions. I ended up catching him, so now he owes me. I’ll try another one. I’ll try to submit him in the fight as well so he owes me two dinners [laughs].”
Florida’s Kill Cliff FC is also home for other top-ranked UFC welterweights Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns and Shavkat Rakhmonov, and Luque knew that fighting a training partner would be inevitable. Luque has said in the past that he would never face “Durinho”, but is OK to fight any one of those other names.
Agreeing to face Garry was “a bit challenging at first,” Luque said, because he had check in with Henry Hooft first, given the fact that Hooft has worked as head coach for both in the past. With Garry doing his camp elsewhere this time, Luque said Hooft will coach him for UFC 296 but probably will not be in his corner.
Luque admits he trains differently when he’s working with someone that could be an opponent down the line. Nothing aggressive, he explained, but it’s part of his competitive nature to test himself at all times.
“I think it changes from person to person,” Luque said. “I think it’s hard to see it as a normal training session. Some people hide their games a little bit, maybe they don’t want to show all their tools, and I’m more competitive. To me, even in training, I try to do my best and win. In a healthy way, of course, not trying to hurt anyone.
“Let’s say we’re rolling, I’ll try to submit you. If we’re sparring, I’ll try to dominate, to take you down, to move. I’ll always trying to dominate the training session because I think like, ‘If this guy is my opponent one day, I want to start dominating him now. I’ll show him we’re not playing here.’ It’s hard for me to train without giving me my best. If only makes me more competitive.”
“I love this sport and it was never personal for me,” he continued. “I respect all opponents because they all go through similar things. There’s weight cut, every camp is hard and sometimes there are injuries we have to overcome, wins and losses. To me, every opponent is just like me. I never make it personal, and it won’t be different this time. We’ll enter the octagon and everything else stays outside. We’ll go to war. The best way we can honor each other is to giving us the best fight.”
Garry is 13-0 as a professional with half a dozen UFC victories, capped off by a decision over Neil Magny. Luque won a five-round decision over Rafael dos Anjos in his most recent bout, and feels he can jump the line and be closer to a shot at the welterweight belt if he stops a hyped fighter like Garry on the same night Leon Edwards defends the UFC title against Colby Covington.
“That’s what attracted me the most to this fight,” Luque said. “Ian is very talented, he does his talking on the mic and gets a ton of attention. The UFC is promoting him a lot. I have a lot to win in this fight. He’s ranked behind me and maybe he doesn’t have as much experience in the UFC as I do, but still, it’s a fight that can push me higher. It’s like [Khamzat] Chimaev or Shakvat, undefeated guys that have a ton of talent and hype, so a big win over him can push me. I got to beat a former champion in my last fight, Rafael dos Anjos, and now a rising talent, a hyped fighter. I can jump a few spots and go after the belt, not doubt.”
