Ian Machado Garry promised one of the greatest performances in history when he offered his prediction ahead of his fight against Michael Page on Saturday night at UFC 303.
What resulted was a back-and-forth battle that went right down to the final horn, with Garry ultimately eking out a close decision win after three rounds. Despite coming from a striking background, Garry actually turned to his grappling to slow down Page, who landed the better punches and kicks throughout the fight.
The final decision really came down to scoring in the third round, with all three judges giving Garry the nod, which in turn gave him the victory. For his part, UFC CEO Dana White seemed to disagree with that assessment.
“Sean [Shelby] and Mick [Maynard] felt that fight would play out exactly the way it did, we talked about it leading up to this fight,” White said of his matchmakers at the UFC 303 post-fight press conference. “I had that fight a draw.
“If [the judges] came out and said that fight was a draw, that’s exactly what I thought that fight was too. Obviously, Ian won the first round, MVP won the second round, and it was 50/50 in the third round.”
It’s incredibly rare to ever see judges use a 10-10 round, which is the only way Garry and Page could’ve ended up as a draw.
Still, White believes the action was that close during the third round, which served as a microcosm to the entire fight, with Garry controlling the grappling and Page doing the same with his striking.
Perhaps the biggest mistake Page made is ultimately what cost him the win after he ended up on top of Garry during one exchange that saw the welterweights fall to the ground. Rather than stay in a dominant position over Garry, it was Page’s decision stand back up again so he could look for a knockout that never came.
“What was crazy was ‘MVP’ had that top position and he gave it up,” White said. “He could have just rode that thing out and won the round. He stood up and gave up that top position.”
The final result was Garry getting the nod on the scorecards and Page suffering his first UFC loss after signing with the promotion as a free agent.
Regardless of how White scored the fight, Garry has plenty of options awaiting him following this latest win as he remained undefeated and took another step forward in the welterweight division.
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