{"id":19362,"date":"2026-03-02T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/2026\/03\/02\/ufc-bench-ian-gary-plans-much-bigger-fight-for-islams-return\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:07:00","slug":"ufc-bench-ian-gary-plans-much-bigger-fight-for-islams-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/2026\/03\/02\/ufc-bench-ian-gary-plans-much-bigger-fight-for-islams-return\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC bench Ian Gary plans ‘much bigger’ fight for Islam’s return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Above them is former division champion Jack Della Maddalena, who is already set to return to the promotion for Perth later this year (read more here). But that booking doesn’t necessarily mean "the future” has a clear path to reigning welterweight kingpin Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It looks like the champions have moved on to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is the UFC. [is] There is a big fight going on. [for] Islam Makhachev and Ian’s names are not related,” Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz wrote on social media. "It’s much bigger. It’s one of the biggest fights they can have in the UFC right now. Please stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite this chatter, there are only two fights that qualify as "bigger” than Garry’s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of those would be a champion-versus-champion superfight with current lightweight titleholder Ilia Topuria, which, according to these comments, seems unlikely. The other will be the headlining opponent of former 155-pound champion Conor McGregor, who is not expected to compete in the UFC White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above them is former division champion Jack Della Maddalena, who is already set to return to the promotion for Perth later this year (read more here). But that booking doesn’t necessarily mean "the future” has a clear path to reigning welterweight kingpin Islam Makhachev. It looks like the champions have moved on to bigger and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[47442,47443,48862,47872],"tags":[47437,47438,48861,47870],"class_list":["post-19362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-ufc-mma-news","category-ufc-news","category-ufc-white-house-2026","category-upcoming-ufc-events","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-white-house-2026","tag-upcoming-ufc-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}