Geoff Neal eyes second round finish over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 298: “It’ll be satisfying for sure”

By Susan Cox - February 2, 2024

Geoff Neal is eyeing a second-round finish over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 298.

Geoff Neal, Vicente Luque, UFC Vegas 59

UFC 298 takes place on Saturday, February 17th at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

On the card is a welterweight battle between Geoff Neal (15-5 MMA) and the undefeated Ian Machado Garry (13-0 MMA).

Strickland took aim at Ian Garry for sporting a T-shirt with Neal’s mugshot on it last year when Neal and Garry were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 292 last August, but Neal had to withdraw for then undisclosed reasons.

Apparently, the former middleweight champion, Sean Strickland, has reached out to Neal ahead of his upcoming bout with Garry.

Geoff Neal, speaking in an interview with ‘Fanatics View’ spoke about Strickland and his opponent Garry:

“He just asked if it was OK if he posted his mugshot with mine, and I was like, ‘I don’t care’. We talked recently. I’ve hit him up after a few of his fights. (I) wanted to go train with him because I see his sparring videos and I like the way he spars, and I do one day want to get in there and mix it up with him and train with him.”

Continuing Neal said:

“I’m not going to engage in too much trash talk. I’ve never been that type of person, but it’s entertaining, him talking sh*t. But the fans (have) got my back on this one. I don’t got to say sh*t anymore.”

“It’s two strikers going at it. He’s real technical and rangy on the outside, so I’m just going to have to get in there and make it dirty, make it ugly, push the pressure, push the pace, test my COVID lung and see how much pace I can push on him.”

Concluding, Geoff Neal made a prediction of what’s going to happen at UFC 298 (h/t MMAJunkie):

“I feel like I’m going to take him out in the second round … second round, maybe early third round. It’ll be satisfying for sure, but I feel like it’s the perfect fight for me for right now. He has a big name and he has a lot of hate, but hopefully I can get some more clout, I guess you can say.”

Do you believe Neal can hand Garry his first loss in the Octagon on Saturday, February 17th?

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