Ian Garry spills why he wants to fight the "Usman's and the Colby's" instead of Leon Edwards for the UFC title

Rising UFC welterweight star Ian Garry has spoken about why he wants to fight fighters like Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington for the title instead of fighters like Leon Edwards.

In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Garry revealed how he sees his upcoming years in the UFC welterweight division. Coming off a dominant victory over Neil Magny, the Irishman called out Stephen Thompson for about as he wants to prove himself against one of the best strikers in the division.

Speaking of his career trajectory following his potential fight against Thompson, Garry noted that he would then like to take on fighters like Usman and Covington. He said:

"Then I start to fight the grapplers, then I start to fight the wrestlers. I'll fight the Usman's, I'll fight the Colby's, approved against two of the greatest in the division. I wanna fight both of those guys and I wanna show them that I can beat both of them with ease on the feet, wrestling, grappling, I can do it all."

While further speaking about how he sees more of an advantage in training with the UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards than fighting him, Garry said:

"I see right now more advantage in being able to drive up to Birmingham two and a half hours and learn and grow and train alongside Leon than I do thinking of Leon as an opponent."

Catch his comments below (7:30):

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Stephen Thompson explains why he won't fight Ian Garry

While Ian Garry seems to be eager to fight Stephen Thompson in his next fight, 'Wonderboy' on the flipside has seemingly no interest in fighting the Irishman. Talking about the same in an interview with talkSPORT, Thomson reacted to being called out by Garry and explained why a fight against him does not make sense to him.

While suggesting that he would rather fight Kamaru Usman in an attempt to make one final run at the title instead of fighting Garry, Thompson said:

"Great performance by Ian. He did call me out... You know, he’s moving up the rankings, and, at this point, I don’t want to be a gatekeeper. My focus right now is a guy who recently called me out as well, who was ranked number one for a very long time, and was a champ – Kamaru Usman. That fight makes sense, especially for me, someone who is 40 years old and wants to go for that one last title shot."