Irish up-and-comer Ian Garry had a rough start against Song Kenan, but he showed impressive resilience before turning things around for a third-round stoppage.
Garry blasted Kenan with a hard combination of punches with short time in UFC 285’s final prelim, leaving the Chinese fighter’s eye a mess as ref Marc Goddard stepped in at 4:22 of Round 3.
To put an exclamation on his win, Garry did the “Billy Strut” and got a nod from his countryman and idol Conor McGregor, who popularized the walk in MMA.
Ian Garry you little DAISY! ☘️
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) March 5, 2023
Check out the finish below.
Things didn’t start so well for the undefeated Irishman, who’d won three straight before stepping into the octagon with Kenan. After keeping Kenan at the end of his kicks and punches, Garry took a left hook that caught him unprepared and dropped him. His corner had to tell him what happened.
In the second, Garry began to rebound, using his length to sting Kenan at distance. The Chinese fighter’s eyes began to swell as jabs and crosses found their target, and he was unable to catch his opponent clean on the counter. Garry’s output was higher both with his hands and feet, and he comfortably took the frame.
Garry turned up the tempo in the third, dictating the pace of the fight and increasingly conducting batting practice on his more passive foe. Aided by early leg kicks that appeared to take steam out of Kenan in later rounds, Garry poured on the offense before the final combination sent his foe backward to the fence and end-over-end, covering up for dear life as Garry flurried.
It was Garry’s fourth straight win and extended his unbeaten streak to 11-0. Kenan suffered his second straight loss after a first-round stoppage setback against Max Griffin at UFC Vegas 22.
Garry afterward called for a spot on the UFC 287 in Miami, not far from where he trains at Kill Cliff MMA.