Ian Garry Might Be Islam Makhachev’s Toughest Test Yet At UFC 330

Islam Makhachev enters his first welterweight title defense as the consensus pound-for-pound number one on the planet, riding a 16-fight win streak that ties Anderson Silva’s UFC record. His coronation came at UFC 322 in November 2025, where he dismantled Jack Della Maddalena across five rounds, sweeping every scorecard 50-45 to claim a second UFC title in a second weight class. Now, at UFC 330 in Philadelphia, he faces Ian Machado Garry, the rangy, unbeaten-in-five Irishman who has quietly built a case as the most stylistically dangerous puzzle Makhachev has faced since moving up from lightweight.

The betting markets don’t see it that way, Garry is a heavy underdog, listed around +260 to Makhachev’s -360, but odds and stylistic nightmares are two different things. Here’s the case for why Garry represents Makhachev’s toughest matchup at 170, why it might actually get him the belt, and why it probably won’t.

The Physical Chess Problem

The tale of the tape is where Garry’s argument starts. He stands 6’3″ with a frame that has always looked more like a light heavyweight squeezed into welterweight than a natural 170-pounder, while Makhachev is a compact 5’10” who has spent his entire career using length and leverage against smaller men, not against someone who dwarfs him.

Garry’s average fight time of 14:45 compared to Makhachev’s 11:01 also tells a story: Garry is comfortable letting fights breathe into deep water, while Makhachev has built a reputation on suffocating opponents before the championship rounds even arrive. If Garry can use his reach to keep this a kickboxing measuring contest rather than a phone booth, he forces Makhachev into unfamiliar territory, fighting up in length rather than down.

That length matters most in the clinch and on the entry into takedowns. Every fighter Makhachev has smothered, from Alexander Volkanovski to Della Maddalena, has been a comparable or shorter frame that he could collapse distance on. Garry’s long limbs and underrated takedown defense give him tools, at least on paper, to make Makhachev work harder just to get hands on him than anyone he’s faced in the last three years.

Durability and a Killer Instinct That Refuses to Fold

Garry’s only professional loss came via unanimous decision to Shavkat Rakhmonov, a fellow elite wrestler-grappler, and Garry survived all three rounds against a man many consider the second scariest welterweight in the division. That’s relevant as he has already gone the distance with a grappler like Rakhmonov and lived to tell about it, learning firsthand how to survive top pressure without getting finished. Since that loss, Garry has reeled off wins that culminated in hard-fought decisions over Belal Muhammad and Carlos Prates, arguably the best resume-builder available to him, proving he can win rounds against elite counter-strikers and physical wrestlers alike.

Garry also brings a brash confidence and a finishing rate, seven of his 17 wins have come by knockout, that suggests he won’t simply try to survive Makhachev’s grappling for 25 minutes. If he can land clean, especially with the jab and straight right he uses to control range, he has genuine one-punch power that nobody else has tested Makhachev with at welterweight so far.

Why Garry Beats Makhachev

Put simply: distance, timing, and an underrated wrestling IQ. Garry’s reach advantage of multiple inches lets him potentially stuff the single-leg entries that Makhachev relies on, since he simply has more limb to frame off and create separation before hips ever get close.

His killer instinct from range, paired with a chin that has never been seriously tested by real power, gives him a finishing path that few Makhachev opponents have possessed. And crucially, Garry has shown durability against elite grappling pressure already, he’s been in the deep water with Rakhmonov and survived, which means the psychological shock of facing a dominant wrestler for the first time, the factor that has undone so many Makhachev opponents, won’t exist here.

If Garry can turn this into rounds four and five where fatigue evens the physical gap, his youth (28 to Makhachev’s 34) and gas tank could become the difference-maker late.

Why Garry Doesn’t Beat Makhachev

The counterargument is just as strong, maybe stronger. Makhachev’s takedown entries aren’t reliant on being taller or matching reach; they’re built on suffocating hip pressure, chain wrestling, and an ability to convert scrambles into dominant position regardless of opponent size, which is exactly what buried Della Maddalena, a durable, decorated boxer, across five rounds without him winning a single one on any scorecard.

Garry’s takedown defense, while respectable, has never been tested against someone with Makhachev’s volume and relentlessness of entries; length helps you avoid one shot, but Makhachev throws entries in combination and off scrambles, not in isolation.

There’s also the sample-size problem. Garry has never faced anyone remotely close to Makhachev’s level of Dagestani wrestling pedigree; Rakhmonov, tough as he is, doesn’t have Makhachev’s championship pedigree or fight IQ, and Garry still lost that fight on every card.

Once Makhachev gets any grip, an underhook, a collar tie, a single leg, his ability to convert into top position and grind out 18-to-20-minute control windows has proven essentially unsolvable at both 155 and 170 pounds. Garry’s chin has also never absorbed sustained ground-and-pound from someone with Makhachev’s positional dominance, and unlike standing exchanges, there’s no reach advantage that helps you defend elbows and forearms from full mount or back control.

Both arguments hold real weight. Garry’s frame, unbeaten stretch since his lone loss, and finishing instincts make him a legitimately uncomfortable style matchup that could, in theory, turn into the first true welterweight scare of Makhachev’s reign. But the same blueprint that has broken every other opponent- patient entries, chain wrestling, and suffocating top control, has never met a counter that actually worked, and nothing in Garry’s resume proves he has found one.

Whether “The Future” becomes the man who finally dethrones the sport’s reigning pound-for-pound king, or simply the latest name added to Makhachev’s historic streak, is the question UFC 330 in Philadelphia will finally answer. Until then, the debate over whether length and heart can outlast Dagestani pressure remains exactly that, a debate, decided only once the cage door closes this Saturday night.