On May 10, at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Jack Della Maddalena will fight champion Belal Muhammad for the welterweight title and Ian Machado Garry is not happy about it.
Muhammad (24-3) was scheduled to put his title on the line for the first time against the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov (19-0) but a knee injury prevented Rakhmonov from competing. Matchmakers opted to pit Muhammad against Della Maddalena (17-2) instead.
In a video posted to Instagram, Garry (15-1) said he was ‘livid’ with the fight promotion’s decision to grant Della Maddalena a title shot and that he would have been a better option.
“Why aren’t I fighting for the title? I had a chat with my agent. I rang him when he told me about this news, and I was livid – still am to this day,” Garry said in the video.
“I had a No. 1 contender’s fight where the guy. (Rakhmonov) now has to get knee reconstruction and is out for a year. But you know, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do it. I didn’t stab his knee 20 something times and boot the leg off. I’m not fighting for a world title because I’m coming off a loss, and they’re giving it to a guy who’s been injured for a year, and they think that’s more exciting, but they’re wrong.
“The world title fight was meant to be Shavkat Rakhmonov taking on Belal Muhammad, but Shavkat apparently is out injured. I wonder how that happened? Now they’re pulling in a guy who hasn’t fought in a year because he’s had an operation on his forearm because he broke it in his last fight, hasn’t fought in a long time, and hasn’t been active. So, they’ve given it to Jack Della Maddalena because I’m coming off of a loss. That’s Okay. Don’t worry. I’ll get you all. You’re all mine.”
View the original article to see embedded media.
Currently unbooked for a fight, Garry would like to be back in action during International Fight Week in June.
“When am I fighting again? I would like to fight International Fight Week, June 28,” Garry said. “I don’t care who. I don’t care who they want to put in front of me. I just want to fight and I want to prove that I’m the best in the world.”
Garry suffered his first career loss in his last outing, losing to Rakhmomov via decision. He’s ranked No. 7 in the welterweight division. Della Maddalena is riding a 17-fight winning streak and hasn’t tasted defeat in nine years. He’s ranked fourth in the 170-pound weight class.
