Neil Magny is ready to forgive Ian Garry despite the Irishman’s trash talk taking a toll on his personal life.
Magny dropped a unanimous decision in a short-notice booking against Garry at UFC 292 in August last year. Leading up to the fight, “The Haitian Sensation” had promised to put on a “father-like” beating on Garry. While Magny insisted that it was just trash talk, Garry twisted the context and accused his opponent of child abuse.
Unfortunately, Magny was also going through a divorce and a custody battle for his kids around the same time. The welterweight veteran claims Garry’s trash talk had legal repercussions on his personal life. However, he doesn’t harbor any ill feelings towards “The Future” and especially doesn’t want the Irishman to go through the same experience as himself. Magny instead wishes Garry can soon get a hold of his own personal life, which has also recently been in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
“At the end of the day, I hope he’s never had to go through it. Going through a separation when you have children involved is one of the worst things I’ve had to face in my life. I mean, that tops every type of experience I’ve had thus far. Whether that’s grief, military things, whatever it may be,” The 36 year old said on “The MMA Hour.”
“That kind of experience is something I wouldn’t wish on my own enemy… It was a very uneasy feeling. So, to have an opponent kind of take that lightly, and make it a gimmick. Some of the things he was saying in press conferences were being quoted in emails for my partner’s attorney to use in court. That kind of stuff, it was just a very uneasy feeling for me. Like man, this is beyond fighting, this is my actual life here.
“Mentally it took a huge toll on me… There’s no way I can turn around and say, ‘I hope this person goes through this now’, that’s just not anything I would want to go through again…No [I don’t hold a grudge], not at all. With everything that’s happening with him now, I hope he can get to a point and figure it out.”
Magny has since bounced back with a come-from-behind third-round technical knockout win over Canadian top prospect Mike Malott at UFC 297 on Saturday.
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