Yaroslav Amosov hits back at Ian Machado Garry's 'gets smashed' jibe: 'He don't know me'

The Ukrainian, who faces the Irishman in Riyadh on 5 December, said he does not care what Machado Garry thinks and is focused on himself.

Yaroslav Amosov has hit back at Ian Machado Garry's old claim that he would get "smashed", telling The Ariel Helwani Show: "He don't know me." Amosov said the Irishman "think all people can smash me, beat me, but now he have fight with me and now we will see". The pair meet in a five-round co-main event at UFC Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Saturday 5 December.

Helwani put to the former Bellator welterweight champion a video from last year in which Machado Garry talked about Bellator fighters not doing well in the UFC and said he did not know who Amosov was. Amosov had shared the clip on social media, writing that it looked like Machado Garry did not believe in him.

Asked whether Machado Garry was underestimating him, Amosov said: "Maybe, I don't care about what he think, what he talk." He said he thinks "about my game" and added: "Of course he fighter and we must talk, we must, we must do trash talk maybe ... but I focus about myself."

Machado Garry made his comments in November 2025, after his win over Belal Muhammad at UFC Qatar and a month before Amosov's UFC debut. "Whoever he is, I don't mean any disrespect to this man, him versus Islam Makhachev, gets smashed," he said at the time. "I don't know who he is. Him versus me, gets smashed."

Machado Garry, ranked No 1 at welterweight by the UFC, has not fought since he lost a unanimous decision to Makhachev in a title fight at UFC 330 in August. Amosov (29-1), ranked No 11, has won both of his UFC fights, against Neil Magny and Joel Alvarez. The fight was booked for a card in Riyadh headed by Israel Adesanya against Shara Magomedov.

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