Ian Machado Garry fires back in brewing Strickland feud

Ian Garry says that Sean Strickland is happy to dish it out, but he can’t take it when it’s fired back at him.

Dubliner Garry, a fighter who has rarely been far from the headlines in the past weeks, has taken a shot at one of his biggest critics in Sean Strickland after the UFC middleweight champion suggested following a heated dust-up with future opponent Dricus du Plessis that there are just some things you don’t say when promoting a fight.

Last month at a press conference to promote the UFC’s forthcoming 2024 calendar of events Strickland had a go at Garry for turning off his social media comments amid a barrage of attention over elements of his private life. At that same event, though, Strickland took a shot at Du Plessis for bring up some aspects of his own personal life.

“There’s some things that are off limits,” Strickland told podcaster Theo Vonn this week. “Once (Du Plessis) crossed that, I tried to f*cking ignore it. I was boiling. Whenever Dricus goes on there, and he jokes about that sh*t, dude, you have no idea. I’ll f*cking kill you. You have no idea. I think the issue is too, when you’re a kid, and you’re made to be a victim your whole life, as an adult, you’re like, ‘Never again. I’ll f*cking kill you.”

But as far as Garry is concerned, this represents hypocrisy of the highest order.

“How the tables have turned,” Garry wrote as a comment to an Instagram post regarding the situation.

“You dish it out in the lowest, most vile manner, but can’t take a pinch. You attacked my wife incessantly and obsessively, calling her a (pedophile).

“It’s clear to see your childhood trauma showing. You claimed you were ‘giving me advice’ before, well now it’s my turn to return the favour: You should shut your mouth and focus on the mirror because you have enough serious issues you need to solve. I wish you all the best with them. Don’t ever project your pain onto me and my family again.”

Strickland fights Du Plessis in the UFC 297 main event later this month, while Garry will return to the cage to fight Geoff Neal at UFC 298 in California on February 17.