Ian Garry is ready to rattle the haters at UFC 298: ‘If you don’t eat at my table, I don’t care for your opinion’
If you’re not eating at his table, Ian Garry is not interested in listening to what you have to say.
‘The Future’ returns to the Octagon this Saturday night for a rescheduled clash with Geoff Neal at UFC 298. Garry is undefeated in his mixed martial arts career, going 13-0 thus far with his last six wins under the UFC banner. Unfortunately, much of the attention surrounding the up-and-coming Irishman as of late has focused on things unrelated to his combat sports career.
Last year, Garry and his wife — Layla Anna-Lee — came under fire after it was revealed that Anna-Lee, who is 14 years older than Garry, once wrote a how-to book for mature women looking to date younger athletes. Though the 11-page scribe was written facetiously, she quickly drew the ire of fighters and fans alike.
Most notably, former middleweight world champion Sean Strickland delivered a series of scathing reactions to the reveal, dubbing Anna-Lee a “succubus” and a “predator.”
Speaking with TNT Sports, Garry revealed that the entire ordeal has drawn him closer to his family and has taught him to not value the opinion of anyone who sits outside of his circle.
“When I sign up to fight, I’m putting myself in that firing range,” Garry said. “I have that target on my back. My wife doesn’t, my son doesn’t, my team doesn’t. Fire at me all you want, that’s OK — I’m in this, I get to go in and punch someone in the face and get rid of it. I get to go in and I can call you out and I can fight you and we can do this. But to attack people’s loved ones and people’s family, I feel, is real low. I mean, my wife got called a pedophile. No one in the world who isn’t that deserves to be called that.
“So all of the [expletive] that’s been said absolutely has an effect on me and my loved ones, and it’s hurtful and it’s upsetting and it was difficult to deal with at the time, but we’ve learned from it. Somehow through all that negativity we’ve learned to pull the people around us closer. If you don’t eat at my table, I don’t care for your opinion.”
Despite all the background noise, Ian Garry is unwavering in his next goal, which is to be standing over Geoff Neal’s unconscious body in front of 20,000 people inside Anaheim’s Honda Center.
“I’m not going to sit down and berate people in a stadium whether they’re booing or not,” Garry said. “If that’s their opinion, fine. What I will do is I’ll bury Geoff Neal into the ground, I’ll stand over his body, I’ll do a 360 and I’ll look and I’ll assess every single person who I make eye contact with, and when I get on that mic, I’ll use that mic to do what it’s best for.
“I’ll call out who’s next and I’ll line up what I want next, who I want next, where I want next, and I’ll get what I want because that’s how much power I have now. That’s the power I have. It’s in my hands now” (h/t BJPenn.com)
