“The Future” appears to have arrived, as Ian Garry has booked his latest fight against a top-10 opponent.
Garry (12-0) is set to face Geoff Neal (15-5) at UFC 292 in Boston, MA on August 19, 2023 at the TD Garden. Ireland’s Garry will be looking to crack the top 10 himself in the fight, ranked #13 currently, while Neal sits in the #8 spot.
RTE was first to report news of the match-up, which Garry subsequently confirmed on social media.
Booking Garry in Boston is reminiscent of the career path of Conor McGregor, who defeated Max Holloway there is his second bout with the promotion. The Irish make up the largest ethnic group in the city, and will no doubt be behind Garry just as they were McGregor back in 2013.
Ian Machado Garry enters the fight off a TKO finish of Daniel “D-Rod” Rodriguez set up by a head kick at UFC Charlotte. That earned the welterweight his first post-fight bonus with the company.
Geoff Neal will be looking to bounce back from a loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov in the fight, which snapped a two-fight win streak “Handz of Steel” had put together. Neal missed weight for the bout, which picked up Fight of the Night at UFC 285 in March. Prior to that, Neal snagged a Performance bonus for knocking out Vicente Luque.
UFC 292 is expected to be topped by a pair of title fights: Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O’Malley for bantamweight gold, and Weili Zhang vs. Amanda Lemos for the promotion’s strawweight crown. The card as reported to date breaks down as follows:
- Aljamain Sterling (c) vs. Sean O’Malley — for the UFC bantamweight championship
- Zhang Weili (c) vs. Amanda Lemos — for the UFC women’s strawweight championship
- Chris Weidman vs. Brad Tavares
- Cody Garbrandt vs. Mario Bautista
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Andre Petroski
- Song Yadong vs. Rob Font
- Maryna Moroz vs. Karine Silva
- Gregory Rodrigues vs. Dennis Tiuliulin
- Ian Garry vs. Geoff Neal
