Ian Garry vs Islam Makhachev: Ian Garry Says Makhachev Is His Aldo Moment

Ian Machado Garry has decided he's the next Conor McGregor.

He didn't hint at it or wait for other people to say it. He said it himself, out loud, on a podcast.

And look, I'm a Conor guy, so my first reaction was to roll my eyes into the back of my skull. But then I actually listened to what he said, and it's a bolder claim than people are giving him credit for. It's also a way riskier one than he's letting on.

Let me explain.

What Garry Actually Said

Garry sat down with High Performance recently and put the comparison out there himself. He's challenging Islam Makhachev for the welterweight title in the main event of UFC 330 on August 15, and he's framing it as his version of the exact moment that turned McGregor into a superstar.

You remember the moment. December 2015, Conor walks across the cage and separates Jose Aldo from his soul in 13 seconds. Aldo had been the featherweight king for a decade. Conor erased him in less time than it takes to read this sentence, and that was the night he stopped being a prospect and became a global event.

Garry wants that night. He says the pressure's been on him to be that guy for years. "I've had a lot of pressure from the outside world, from the fans and the sport itself, to be this star, to live up to the hype that Conor McGregor set being from Dublin, Ireland," he told High Performance.

And he's leaning all the way into the McGregor of it all. Back at UFC Qatar he flat out called himself Conor's protege. "You're Khabib's protege, I'm McGregor's protege. Let's run it back for that welterweight world title," Garry said in his callout, selling the whole thing as the next chapter of Ireland vs Dagestan.

Conor even gave him a nod. At the UFC 329 presser, minutes before his own knee betrayed him, McGregor said, "The Machado fella, I wish him well. I hope we do it. Go for Ireland."

So the torch is basically getting handed over. Cool story. Here's the problem.

Makhachev Is Not Jose Aldo

This is where the whole comparison falls apart for me.

Conor's Aldo moment worked because Aldo was a striker. A legendary one, but a striker. Two guys stand up, they trade, and the faster and more precise puncher wins. That's Conor's entire game. That matchup was built in a lab for a McGregor highlight. He stepped into a phone booth with another kickboxer and won the coin flip in 13 seconds.

Islam Makhachev is not that. Not even a little.

He came out of the same camp as Khabib Nurmagomedov, with that same smothering wrestling and the style where he drags you into deep water and calmly holds your head under. He just jumped up to welterweight and beat Jack Della Maddalena to become a two division champ, and after the Topuria superfight everybody wanted fell apart, Garry's the guy who landed the shot at him.

So when Garry calls this his Aldo moment, real talk, it just isn't. Aldo was the fight that proved Conor was special. This is the fight that decides whether Garry can do the one thing Conor never could.

Beat Dagestan.

The Part Nobody's Saying Out Loud

Here's what makes the whole "I'm McGregor's protege" pitch kinda wild to me.

That Ireland vs Dagestan rivalry Garry keeps invoking? Ireland lost it. That's the actual history. In 2018 Conor McGregor walked into that exact same matchup against Khabib, at the absolute peak of his powers, and got hauled to the mat and tapped in the fourth round. The blueprint Garry's citing ends with the Irishman submitted on his back.

Now Garry wants to run it back against Khabib's successor. And honestly? I respect the stones on that. He's not ducking into the easy fight. He's walking straight at the one style that broke his idol.

But selling it as his Aldo moment is showing you the wrong movie. This isn't the 13 second coronation. This is the sequel to the fight that humbled McGregor, and Garry's cast himself in Conor's role without mentioning how the original ended lol.

Okay, But Is He Even the Next Conor?

Alright, let me be fair, since I've been dunking a little.

The comparison isn't nothing. Garry came up the same exact way McGregor did, ripping through Cage Warriors in Europe and winning a title there before the UFC came calling. He's got the mouth and the walk, and the Irish crowd is already behind him. The actual fighting has mostly backed it up too. He's won 16 of his first 17 (his only loss was to Shavkat Rakhmonov, who's an absolute problem, so no shame in that one), he beat Carlos Prates this year, and he outstruck Belal Muhammad for a full 15 minutes without getting taken down a single time.

That last detail is the one that matters here.

And the timing could not be better for him. Conor's on the shelf for 9 to 12 months after blowing his knee out at UFC 329. The throne is empty. Ireland doesn't have a guy at the top right now. If Garry wants that crown, the door is wide open for him to grab it.

But wanting the crown and being built for THIS specific fight are two very different things. The Independent even pointed out that Garry calling himself "McGregor's protege" is a bit of a stretch, seeing as the two aren't close and Conor never actually trained him.

So is he the next Conor? Ask me on August 16.

Real Talk: Can He Actually Win?

Here's my honest read on the fight.

Garry's takedown defense is legit, and it's the one thing that gives him a real shot. He stuffed everything Belal threw at him, and Belal is a grinder who takes people down for a living. If Garry keeps this fight standing, he's got the length and the technique to bust Makhachev up on the feet and make it a long, ugly night for the champ.

The problem is nobody keeps it standing with Islam for 25 straight minutes. Nobody has. He's the most complete fighter on the planet right now, and he's got five full rounds to find one takedown and turn Garry's dream into a wrestling clinic.

I'm not counting the kid out. Stranger things have happened and he's genuinely for real. But if I'm putting money down, I'm betting the Dagestan machine does what it always does, and Garry walks out having learned the same lesson Conor learned in 2018.

Either way, we find out on August 15 whether "The Future" is actually the future, or just the guy who talked himself into the deep end against the worst possible swimmer to try it on.

Can he back it up? That's the whole ballgame.

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