Ian Machado Garry gives brutally honest reaction to "coward" Colby Covington stepping in as his replacement while avoiding him "like a plague"

Ian Machado Garry recently shared his thoughts on Colby Covington stepping in to face Joaquin Buckley after the Irishman was booked against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310. The Irishman slammed 'Chaos' for ducking a fight against him and predicted a strong victory for Buckley at UFC Tampa later this month.

For context, welterweight champion Belal Muhammad was booked for a title fight against Rakhmonov at UFC 310 this weekend but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to medical issues. Meanwhile, Garry was set to face Buckley on Dec.14 at UFC Tampa.

Given that Rakhmonov was left without an opponent, the UFC re-booked Garry for a fight against 'Nomad' and called up Covington to replace him against Buckley.

Considering the heated rivalry between Covington and Garry, it's no surprise that the Irishman was surprised to see Covington accept a short-notice fight against Buckley while seemingly avoiding his callouts. During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, 'The Future' lambasted Covington and said:

"I was seething. How do you think I feel? Because I’ve been screaming and shouting about fighting that man from the rafters. This man’s made videos about me, my wife, my kids – talking about all this sh*t. And here’s this man avoiding me like the plague, and then the second I book in against the scariest man in the division, he’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll fight in Florida."

Sharing his prediction for the Covington-Buckley fight, Garry continued:

“It just proves, it just shows that he’s a coward, that he wants nothing to do with me... He’s an absolute coward, and I believe he’s going to go out there and get absolutely steamrolled by Joaquin Buckley. I think Buckley starches him.”

Catch Ian Machado Garry's comments below (10:44):

---

Ian Machado Garry issues cold warning to Shavkat Rakhmonov ahead of UFC 310

Ian Machado Garry recently sent Shavkat Rakhmonov a warning ahead of their highly anticipated fight at UFC 310 this weekend. The Irishman addressed training with his former Kill Cliff teammate in the past and warned 'Nomad' not to underestimate him based on their previous sparring sessions.

In the same interview with Ariel Helwani, Garry urged Rakhmonov to change his mindset going into their bout and said:

"Training is training. What are we doing in training? We're trying to evolve and grow. We are trying to be better...do things that put us in scenarios where we need to learn, so if Shavkat believes that the training we had in the past is going to be the same on Saturday night when he steps in that octagon with me...You're going to be severely mistaken, and if I were you, I would change that mentality very quickly."