A potential showdown between UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev and Ian Machado Garry is already drawing strong opinions, and ranked contender Sean Brady doesn’t like Garry’s chances if the fight hits the mat.
Talk of a possible Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry fight at a future UFC 3XX card picked up this week after Sean Brady weighed in on the matchup during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. Brady, one of the UFC’s top-ranked welterweights, said he believes Makhachev’s wrestling and submission game would be too much for Garry to handle if the bout is booked.
That opinion matters because the welterweight division is crowded with legitimate contenders, and any title fight involving Makhachev would immediately reshape the queue at 170 pounds. A win for Makhachev would further cement the idea that his control-heavy style can neutralize even the division’s slickest strikers, while a Garry upset would instantly turn him into one of the UFC’s biggest stars in the American market.
Brady’s read on the fight was blunt. He pointed to moments in Garry’s recent performances where opponents were able to create scrambles and difficult grappling exchanges, referencing both Shavkat Rakhmonov and Michael “Venom” Page as examples. In Brady’s view, if those situations showed openings, a fighter with Makhachev’s level of top control and submission threat would be even more dangerous.
There’s also a bigger narrative at play here. Garry has built his rise on confidence, movement and clean kickboxing, but this is exactly the kind of matchup where he would need to prove he can stay upright against an elite pressure grappler for 25 minutes. Makhachev, meanwhile, would be trying to show that his dominance translates cleanly against a younger, longer welterweight with real speed and range. That is the kind of style clash American fans tend to obsess over: technician versus problem-solver, striker versus suffocating grappler.
Makhachev’s camp has made a habit of turning small defensive mistakes into fight-ending sequences, and that’s why Brady sees a long night for Garry if the champion gets his hands on him. If this matchup moves from debate to official booking, the first thing to watch will be whether Garry can keep the fight in open space before Makhachev turns it into another grinding championship performance.
