Pneumonia Rules out Garry of UFC 296 Fight
Too Late for a Replacement
Ian Garry confirmed early on Thursday morning via MMA news websites that he would not be able to fight on the UFC 296 card, leaving Dana White with very little scope to find a replacement opponent for Vincente Luque with so short a time before the event. The fight has been axed from the card, and Luque will probably just sit at the cage side and enjoy the rest of the fights.
UFC management initially left the main card with four fights. Yet it has now been announced that the fight between Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell will be bumped up to the main presentation. Either way, this type of last-minute withdrawal of a hotly anticipated match is hard for promoters as the value of their show significantly decreases.
Garry Still 13-0 When Fit
Being ill isn’t great, and pulling out of fights with little notice can really irk promoters, but allowances can be made when you’re a star in the business. Despite putting out his employers, Ian Garry is still a massive draw for the UFC. He’s 13-0, and that undefeated status is what gets fight fans interested, whether they want to see it extend or come to an end. When he’s fit and ready to fight again, there’s no doubt that he will be able to get another quality fight in the welterweight division. Whether or not that’s Vincente Luque or someone else in the top ten welterweight standings, he will still be able to get a big fight.
How Long will Garry be out for?
The majority of medical journals and online resources suggest that healthy people can recover from pneumonia within a week, with the most severe cases usually lasting no longer than a month. Garry, like all of his UFC counterparts, will be in peak physical condition, as it’s a prerequisite to be a professional athlete. There’s no doubt he will be able to shake the illness. However, it’s dependent on how much it tires him out. If he loses his match fitness, then he could need more time to get back to fight readiness. If all goes well and he puts the effort in, fight fans could reasonably expect him to be back by March 2024.
Or he could wait it out and angle himself for a spot on the upcoming historic UFC 300 card, which every fighter in the promotion will be trying to appear on. Should the Irish fighter return at the right point, he could most certainly try to defend his undefeated status on the biggest stage of MMA history.
Luque Will Rue Extended Fight Camp
Vincente Luque will be the most upset out of all parties. He will have been in fight camp for some time. He got the decision win in his fight in August and will really have wanted this big fight to end the year, especially considering he had more than a year out of the cage. While he will want to get himself in a fight sooner rather than later, UFC 296 is the promotion’s last event of the year. This means that he won’t be able to fight until mid-January at the earliest. In theory, this will extend his fight camp over Christmas, meaning he won’t be able to indulge in as much turkey as he would normally consume.
Someone like Gabriel Bonfim or Joaquin Buckley might become available for a fight in early 2024, whom Luque could contend with. Or he could simply wait for Garry to return so he can have the scheduled fight.
Unfortunately for Welterweight Division Fans
Leon Edwards will be at T-Mobile Arena as he’s headlining the event in his title defense against Colby Covington. UFC 296 was supposed to be a showcase of welterweight excellence with this fight, the bout between Shavkat Rakhmonov and Stephen Thompson, and the canceled contest featuring Ian Garry. While fight fans still have two exceptional welterweight matches, this event would have shaken up the division if all three fights had taken place.
UFC 296 Still Stacked
The UFC 296 card is still very well put together, with some exceptional bouts, even with Ian Garry pulling out. The main event match between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington has become very personal and marred with bad blood as a result of the events at the press conference. The American made distasteful comments about Edwards’ father, who passed away in 2004, being in hell. Covington also tried to rile up the British MMA fight fans by dressing up as George Washington who overthrew British rule in 1779. The mood was starting to boil over as a heavy security presence was needed to prevent an unplanned altercation from taking place. These altercations brought UFC 296 to the mainstream as it was considered MMA breaking news.
In addition to the main event, the Tony Ferguson against Paddy Pimblett fight seems like a card-topper in its own right due to the British fighter’s overwhelming popularity. Taking on a UFC legend and former interim lightweight champion will only do wonders for his career, even if Ferguson is on a six-match losing streak. In the same heated press conference, transatlantic relationships were incredibly strained as Ferguson and Pimblett also bickered, with Ferguson asking his opposition to make him a cup of tea, a classic British stereotype.
Other key matches on the card include Irene Aldana’s match against Karol Rosa in a contest that will shape the women’s bantamweight division. The crowd in Nevada will be treated to another edition of the long-standing Mexico against Brazil combat sports rivalry that always gets featured on MMA news sites.
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