Ian Machado Garry beats Belal Muhammad unless latter uses specific gameplan, per UFC Qatar fighter

Ian Machado Garry likely gets it done in the UFC Qatar headliner this weekend unless Belal Muhammad is able to implement this key aspect of his game, according to an undercard combatant on this UFC Fight Night.

Shem Rock was the combatant in question who touched upon this, and the former Oktagon MMA fighter makes his UFC debut on this event against Nurullo Aliev. Breaking down the machinations of the main event matchup for Saturday, Rock said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“Do you know what? I think Ian Garry’s a very skilled fighter and I like to watch him and study him. I do think every fight I watch him, I see like an evolvement in his game. I do think he’s the type of fighter where he can change his fighting style depend[ing] on his opponent.”

“Fighting a different way each fight, which for me is like, it just shows you’re a martial artist and not just a fighter, which I love to see. But I think Belal’s coming off a bit of a rough loss. He has to get the wrestling going to beat Ian Garry. So if he can’t get the wrestling going, I’m siding with Ian on that, yeah.”

Ian Machado Garry’s assessments of the Belal Muhammad bout

Ian Machado Garry also seems to see this bout through a similar lens that Shem Rock does, insofar as he sees a noticeable edge in the stand-up portion of the game. During an interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie heading into his UFC Qatar fight with Belal Muhammad, Machado Garry mentioned how the former UFC welterweight champion wouldn’t last one round if ‘Remember the Name’ keeps it to a purely striking-based contest.

The Irish MMA fighter also thinks Muhammad has overplayed his hand a bit in the pursuit of playing head games with Machado Garry and revealing his true intentions to get a hold of him so that Muhammad can implement a grappling-centric approach. Machado Garry does see this fight ending in the opening stanza, but the collective MMA world will tune in to see the outcome in the coming days.