Michael Chandler: Ian Garry is a ‘me’ fighter, not a ‘we’ fighter

As Ian Garry prepares to face fellow Kill Cliff teammate Vicente Luque, another gym member has some not-so-nice words on Garry as a teammate.

Ian Garry is not the most popular UFC fighter on the internet right now, and it seems like he’s not the most popular fighter at Kill Cliff FC either.

The gym (formerly Sanford MMA, and before that Hard Knocks 365) is home to tons of champions — past, present, and future. Garry could be one of those future champions, but it seems like he has some trouble fitting in at elite gyms. He was recently barred from UK’s Team Renegade, and now it sounds like things are getting iffy at Kill Cliff.

The tension comes as Garry is set to fight fellow Kill Cliff member Vicente Luque at UFC 296. Brendan Allan has come out and warned Garry to watch his mouth, lest footage of Garry getting sparked in training be released. And now another top Kill Cliff member, Michael Chandler, is sharing a not-so-glowing opinion of Garry as a teammate.

“He’s very much a ‘me’ kind of fighter, whereas I’ve always been a ‘we’ kind of fighter,” Chandler said on a recent episode of The MMA Hour. “[I] focus on the team, more than myself. He’s more ‘I know exactly what to do, I step inside the cage’ kind of guy.”

“I don’t think he’s a bad dude,” Chandler added. “He picked Conor to beat me I think, so that’s good. He’s his childhood hero man, so me and Ian can have that banter back and forth. It’s all good man.”

Chandler even praised Garry’s potential.

“If he keeps his head on his shoulders, he could be champion one day for sure.” he said. “But he’s got a tough test ahead of him in Vicente. Both of those guys I would consider teammates, probably Vicente more because I’ve trained with Vicente for years and years. Ian is now bouncing around a little bit. We’ll see how it works out for him.”

Garry made some serious improvements since joining Kill Cliff, and it would be sad to see him pushed out of the gym. We’re already seeing some fractures forming due to this matchup with Luque, and we haven’t even hit UFC 296 fight week yet. Will things boil over leading into December 16th?