Middleweight Brendan Allen is no fan of former teammate Ian Machado Garry fighting Vicente Luque at UFC 296 next month.
Allen, Garry, and Luque were once all part of Kill Cliff FC, though Garry recently parted ways with the Florida-based gym. Despite the pair no longer being teammates, Allen criticized the booking in a recent interview with ESPN.
“I think it’s a really d*ck move to leave the gym, and then literally ask for – or somehow it comes up – that you’re going to fight a guy you had trained with,” Allen said. “Vicente’s one of the nicest guys ever. He don’t talk about nobody – he barely even talks in the gym. You have to ask him questions to get him to talk. I don’t know, I just think Ian’s a little [censored].”
“That’s just my personal feelings. I’m not going to speak for anyone else in the gym. I think he’s whack. I think he’s young. I think he’s misled. I think he talks way too much, but I understand he’s trying to be like Conor [McGregor], but there’s only one Conor, sorry. There’s one Conor. He or no one right now in the realm is going to top Conor, so I don’t know, I guess I just come from a different way of life.”
Allen added that Garry’s actions were against his morals, and that “he talks too much.” He went on to compare the situation to one of the UFC’s other controversial stars, Colby Covington — who Brendan Allen has heard is playing a persona while being a “really nice guy” behind closed doors. “Really quiet. I don’t know. I’ve never met him. But I’ve met Ian.”
“I’m that kind of guy, if you start talking too much, then we can just fight,” Allen added. “We can really fight. We can take the gloves, we can put the gloves [aside], I don’t care, we can do that. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to even put in words how stupid I think he is for doing those things, but again, it’s exactly the same scenario selling your soul to the devil for money. That’s what he’s doing.”
Allen also suggested that someone in the gym “slept” Ian Machado Garry, and while he won’t release the footage himself, the message was clear: “he knows what name not to say [to avoid footage of what happened to him leaking]. I’m not going to release it, but just know, there is someone in that gym that slept him. Out.”
Despite his criticisms, Brendan Allen reiterated that he believes Garry has been misled.
“I feel like he is a good kid, but now he’s down that road where fame’s hit him, money’s coming with it, he got his girl telling him what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And he’s just ‘yes ma’am, yes ma’am, yes ma’am.’ So that’s why I just think he’s misled. But hey, man, I don’t really care. If he’s happy, god bless him, as long he leaves me alone, we’re good. And yeah, I don’t care. Stay in your lane, I’m going to stay in mine.”
Allen is coming off his sixth straight win, a submission of Paul Craig that has boosted him up in the middleweight division. Ian Machado Garry and Vicente Luque face off in a welterweight fight at UFC 296 on December 16, 2023.
