Ahead of his championship showdown against Islam Makhachev at UFC 330, Ian Garry attracted plenty of attention for his feminist take. During an interview on the High Performance Podcast, the Irishman revealed that he often embraces his feminine side and even suggested that the world would be a better place if women ran it.
Since then, Garry has faced plenty of pushback over his comments, with the latest coming from Sean O’Malley, who didn’t hold back while responding to the Irishman’s feminist take.
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“Okay, wait… What? What the f– did you just say?” O’Malley said on his YouTube video. “Let me rewind that real quick and share it up. I’m trying to process that. ‘If the world was run by women, we’d all live in a better world.’ I mean, could that be true? It sure could be. I wouldn’t let my wife run the world. Would I run the world? Absolutely.”
O’Malley’s pushback against Garry’s statement might seem harsh, but the former bantamweight champion has a history of trolling ‘The Future’ by reacting to his previous controversial statements on his YouTube channel. It’s also possible that ‘Suga’ was responding sarcastically to the Irishman’s feminist take.
Whether O’Malley’s criticism came from a genuine place or not remains unclear. However, the current UFC strawweight champion, Mackenzie Dern, who is set to defend her title against Gillian Robertson this weekend, has also weighed in on Ian Garry’s feminist take.
“I mean, that’s so hard. I come from a little bit more traditional upbringing,” Dern said at the UFC 330 media day. “Obviously, the women in my family are super strong and independent, and they taught me how to be a strong woman. But I don’t know. I like the guy protecting and leading and doing that stuff, and I like to just relax. And if I need to go to war with him, I will. But yeah, I mean, I’m a mommy and stuff like that.”
The American-Brazilian fighter grew up under the tutelage of her father, Wellington ‘Megaton’ Dias, a renowned Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. She credits her father for her disciplined upbringing and for pushing her to become a martial artist. Because of that, Dern found herself at odds with Ian Garry’s belief that the world would be better if women were in charge.
Alongside O’Malley and Dern, other fighters also responded to Ian Garry’s feminist take. But one of them came with much harsher criticism. Welterweight contender Uros Medic also reacted to the Irishman’s statement before his UFC Belgrade fight against Daniel Rodriguez, saying that he wouldn’t want to live in a world ruled by women and that Garry shouldn’t impose his ideas on others.
Clearly, Ian Garry has received plenty of criticism over his rather controversial take. However, all of that would take a backseat once the cage door finally closes this weekend. All eyes will be on the Dublin native as fans wait to find out whether he will be the one to halt Islam Makhachev’s championship reign or fall victim to the Dagestani’s dominance.