UFC welterweight and The Ultimate Fighter winner Bryan Battle, fresh off the back of a massive knockout win over Takashi Sato, wants to take on a rising star. He singled out Ian Garry, the Irish upstart styling himself the “next Conor McGregor”, as a target, as he told MMAJunkie.
“What’s crazy about this is when I won TUF, I was feeling good. I was happy with myself. But literally the next week, established veterans were on social media talking junk – people who had way more fights than me.
Bryan Battle “Not That Impressed” by “Next McGregor” Ian Garry
It became very apparent to me early on in this business, either you’re getting your (reputation), your clout taken, or you’re taking someone else’s rep and clout.
Someone like Ian Garry, I’m looking at him and he’s hot right now. He’s got a lot of clout. A lot of people are paying attention to him. He’s supposed to be the next Conor McGregor, and I’m just watching him fight and I’m not that impressed. As far as people who are unranked go, that’s probably the most high-profile matchup I can get.”
Battle also described how he delivered the thunderous head-kick knockout to earn a first-round knockout victory at UFC on ESPN 40 in Las Vegas. He’d specifically been drilling head kicks ahead of the fight, and was thrilled with the result.
“Nothing ever just shows up. We don’t do lucky stuff where I’m from. Everything is planned and prepared for. Did I know it was going to come at that moment? No. But me and my coaches knew [the head kick] would be there. We trained for it. We drilled it a lot, and it had emphatic results.
If anything, it’s just a confidence booster. It’s like, ‘Oh, wow, yeah – so you can identify holes and exploit them.’ It doesn’t have to be a whole complicated thing. This fight’s over, so when I get ready for the next fight, I’m not going to expect my next fight to be like this fight. That would be kind of foolish. I’ll prepare for it and plan to finish it early, but I’ll prepare to go 15.
I’m not planning on being the one-hitter quitter. I’m not Anthony Johnson all of a sudden or Francis Ngannou. But now everybody knows. Now everybody has to respect that if you’re in there with me, you could go to sleep.”
Is Battle vs Garry a fight you want to see? Let us know in the comments.
