The UFC staff and security team were quick to separate two of the promotion’s biggest stars backstage following UFC Qatar on Saturday.
The promotion’s debut in Doha featured Ian Machado Garry in its co-main event, a fight that saw the Irish welterweight earn a unanimous decision win over ex-champ Belal Muhammad. Also on hand in Doha was middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev, who happened to be cornering headliner Arman Tsarukyan.
Managing any number of brash personalities is what fight promotions do, but Chimaev shoving Garry prior to the post-fight press conference was a little out of left field.
The two initially seemed cordial, until security appeared to step between them, leading Garry to exclaim that Chiamev wouldn’t fight him. That seemed to be based on the fact that their interaction had been cordial, rather than claiming that Chimaev was scared to fight him – but it set “Borz” off regardless. Chimaev gave Garry a shove after the latter asked him what was wrong, and suddenly, security had a reason to get involved.
“That’s just childish. You’re supposed to be a champion in this sport,” Garry can be heard telling Chimaev immediately after the shove. Garry later posted footage of the incident on social media.
Garry also addressed the altercation during his post-fight press conference appearance.
“I went up to Khamzat, I said, ‘Hey champ, what’s up? When are we gonna see you back?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know, brother. Whenever. Smash.’ I was like, ‘Alright, cool. Sweet.’ Slaps me on the back, I’m like, alright, cool. Security guy gets in front of us. We literally were just cool with each other, he’s not gonna fight me – and then that childish energy comes out. ‘Ahh, f*ck you brother, f*ck you.’ Boom. Tries to push me. I just turn around and went, ‘You’re meant to be a champion of this sport. You’re a child.’ You’re taking away from your friend’s win over here. How about you calm down, slow down, and have a bit of respect for your friend over here instead of stealing the headlines.”
Garry would later label it with a mocking term for Chimaev’s manhood. “Do you want the honest truth? It’s little d*ck energy. You’re the champion of the world. No one needs to see you be tough. You don’t need to have these anger management issues. Just be a man. Sorry. I’ll get him one day.”
Chimaev, meanwhile, claimed in his own statement during Arman Tsarukyan’s post-fight press conference appearance that Garry had punched him from behind, though no such action was seen in any video footage yet surfaced.
“Don’t punch somebody from behind, you know. He punched, like slapping my back,” stated Chimaev. At one point, Garry is seen putting his arm on Chiamev’s shoulder, though not in an aggressive fashion and certainly not a punch. “If you want to show respect, respectfully touch somebody. That’s what I tell him, touch somebody respectful. But he came like that to make some hype. Like, you know that guy, trying to be Conor [McGregor]. He never gonna be Conor. He’s a sh*t fighter.”
