Islam Makhachev advises Ian Machado Garry to focus on training rather than trash talk

Islam Makhachev has advised Ian Machado Garry to stop doing interviews and focus on training, saying, ‘It looks like somebody in the house controls him and tells him what to say in interviews.’

Makhachev will make his first defence of the welterweight title against Garry at UFC 330, but he’s going to pass on tuning in to any interviews from the challenger.

The two will compete in the octagon in the August 15 main event, which will take place at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, and Garry has been busy giving interviews as he looks to knock off MMA Fighting’s No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter.

Garry is known for provocative trash talk, and he’s also frequently annoyed his fellow fighters through his media comments, including recent UFC Belgrade star Uros Medic, who took issue with Garry suggesting the world would be better if it were run by women.

But according to Islam Makhachev’s observation, Garry needs to focus more on training in the gym than in the podcast studio.

“I saw a couple of his interviews, honestly he looks very bad in these interviews,” Makhachev told MMA Junkie.

“Better for him training more and do less interviews. It looks like somebody in the house controls him and tells him what to say in the interview. He looked very bad in the interviews, honestly.”

Makhachev also took a shot at Garry’s approach to hyping fights.

“In the fight week, he always tries to be the bad guy, but he acts like he’s a bad guy,” Makhachev said.

“Everybody knows his ground game,” Makhachev said, laughing. “Everybody talking. Everybody say, ‘I’m going to knock out Islam, I’m going to submit Islam,’ but when fight begins, they all forgot what they said.”