Welterweight Gabe Green is chomping at the bit to get back in the octagon— which will come this weekend as part of UFC 276 in Las Vegas.
“I just kind of want to fight already, you know? Training is cool and all, but the fighting’s the fun part, and I just want to do that,” Green (11-3) told Cageside Press in a recent interview. “It’s kind of just counting the days, like how many more sleeps until I sleep sombody else?”
Green has been lined up with Ian Garry as part of the biggest card of the year, a relatively recent pairing. Green had asked to fight as soon as possible after his most recent win, and wasn’t really sure the promotion would get him on the July 2 card, but took a shot and asked to get on it anyway.
“It was already June and I was hitting up my manager, I was like ‘is July going to happen? You haven’t talked to me about anything.'” The response Green got was that August or September was more likely. When Green asked what happened to July 2, his manager told him to hold on, then got back to him with Garry’s name, at UFC 276.
“I was like ‘sign the contract, let’s go!’ I didn’t find out until the middle of June,” continued Green. “I’m ready. I’m ready for whoever. I’m not worried about Ian Garry per se. He’s just another guy that I gotta fight, another guy I’m gonna beat.”
Green knows that the booking likely had a lot to do with Garry’s hype. “They’re probably just trying to make him happy, he probably really wanted to fight on the July 2nd card. And I was just a guy willing to fight whenever they called. That’s fine,” said Green, who now has a big opportunity in front of him. “I don’t have that much stock right now, at least relative compared to Ian Garry. Not a lot of star power for some reason I guess— but after this fight, things will change.”
Green is nothing if not a realist, and recognizes that Garry is a sold talent. “Kinda tall, but I think everybody I fight is kinda tall, I mean that’s nothing super special. He’s Irish, that’s cool. I’ve watched his fights; he doesn’t suck, he’s good,” said Green, asked what Ian Garry brings to the table. But, Green added, “I think he thinks he’s a little better than he actually is.”
If he does get this win this Saturday, Green is looking for one thing in return. “For the UFC to put just a little smidge more respect on my name after I beat him,” he told us.
UFC 276 takes place this Saturday, July 2, 2022 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Watch our full interview with Gabe Green above.
