On his UFC.com athlete profile, the 27-year-old Irishman lists “ego” as his biggest strength, and while any human needs confidence to step into the Octagon, Machado Garry’s self-belief is something closer to his superpower. Through nine walks to the Octagon, he has pretty much backed up his words. He managed a small storm in his debut to score a first-round knockout at UFC 268 and then announced that he was the second coming of the Irish Takeover Conor McGregor started a decade ago. He bounced back from a rocket of a Song Kenan right hand with a slick knockout win, and then he predicted and scored a head kick knockout over Daniel Rodriguez two months later.
A trio of wins over Neil Magny, Geoff Neal and Michael “Venom” Page put him solidly in the Top 10, and when he couldn’t find the proper opponent for a few months, he raised his hand to take on Shavkat Rakhmonov on short-notice—a sentence that would appear less and less appealing with each word. And yet, Machado Garry faced the welterweight boogeyman with gusto, nearly finishing the undefeated contender late in the fight.
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It was a bold move, particularly when a fighter in his position might want to protect their undefeated record, but that’s not Machado Garry’s way, which makes him ideal for life in the UFC. Ideal because, instead of waiting for a top contender to give him a shot at the Top 5, Machado Garry is putting his position at risk taking on the red-hot Carlos Prates on about a month’s notice in Kansas City on April 26.
It’s a wildly risky move for Machado Garry. Prates is coming off four consecutive knockout wins in his rookie campaign. The Brazilian is freshly in the rankings, meaning Machado Garry could tumble outside the Top 10 should he suffer defeat, but Machado Garry doesn’t really think like that.
