"I am happy to sit there and headline" - Ian Garry talks about bringing the UFC back to Ireland

Irish fighter Ian Garry is just one fight into his UFC career but waves are already being made about him being the next Conor McGregor. He has a chance to take a small step towards that massive goal at UFC 273, when he faces Darian Weeks in the featured prelim of the card.

UFC 273 goes down from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. If Garry wins this next fight, he's hoping the UFC will seriously consider bringing the promotion back to Ireland.

In an interview with Sherdog, Garry said:

"It'd be f**king nice to have a fight on the terrain and feel that out. That would be for a brand point of view and the Irish point of view and getting the country behind me, that'd be the biggest way to do it is bring everyone to Dublin and be like 'Here, this is it, this is the future of the sport. This is the guy that's going to lead it.' And I do feel like I will be that guy."

Garry was careful not to overlook the original Irish MMA superstar. He said:

"Obviously, look: I'm still behind Conor. If he wanted to come back tomorrow and make it happen, he could make it happen. But am I absolutely the person that's leading the next rise? Absolutely. Do I think I could do it? 100%, and I hope I can. And I hope the UFC is smart enough to do it because they're not a stupid organization, they know what to do and they could sort it out. If that's something they want to do, I'm game and I'll happily sit there and headline."

During McGregor's rise, the UFC made a point of coming to Ireland or Northern Ireland once a year from 2014 to 2016. They haven't been back since, and now the focus has shifted to England and Europe.

Watch Ian Garry discuss an Ireland show with Sherdog below:

---

Ian Garry is away from Ireland training with top UFC fighters in Florida

Unlike McGregor who has kept his camp in Ireland, Ian Garry is currently training out of Florida with fighters like Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns, and Vicente Luque. It's a level of training partner that would simply be unavailable to Garry if he stayed in Ireland. He said:

"They show me a different style. It's like, I'm just excited to be here and doing what I'm doing. But like that's the difference right? That's the biggest difference. I'm surrounded by that elite level talent."

Ian Garry is hoping to build on his first UFC fight's success, which saw him knock out his opponent Jordan Williams with just one second left in the first round.