“It’s official.” Those were the words of UFC CEO Dana White, confirming Ian Machado Garry as the official back up for the upcoming UFC 315 title fight.

Saturday, after the conclusion of UFC on ESPN 66, White said Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) will be on standby and ready to step in for Belal Muhammad or Jack Della Madelena if either is unable to fight. Muhammad defends his welterweight title against challenger Della Madelena in the UFC 315 main event May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal.

The announcement comes after Machado Garry declared himself the backup following his unanimous decision win over Carlos Prates in the main event of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 66 in Kansas City, Mo. Official title fight backups weigh-in along with the other competitors on Friday before the event and get compensated for their efforts, whether they end up fighting for the belt and being used as replacements.

As far as Machado Garry’s win, White was impressed especially because of who he beat on Saturday.

“If you look at this fight, the kid was on a 10-fight finish streak, I think 11 fight win streak. He’s 4-0 in the UFC, looked good and in the matchmaker room we talked about how this could be a fun fight,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 66 post-fight press conference. “Credit to Ian. He takes these fights on short notice and will fight anybody, and yeah, he looked good tonight.”

Apart from the end of Round 4 and second half of Round 5, Machado Garry was pretty much in control of the fight and was winning comfortably.

“I don’t know how he does it, but he definitely gets in there, and he controls everything: the pace, what he wants to do when he wants to do it,” White said. “The question tonight was: Will Prates will go in there and put unbelievable pressure on him and stray on him, and then we’re wondering if Ian will take him down and hold him down. All the questions we had were answered.”

With this win, Machado Garry was able to bounce back from his first professional defeat back in December. Prior to losing to Shavkat Rakhmonov, Machado Garry was 15-0 with notable wins over Michael Page, Geoff Neal, and Neal Magny.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ian Machado Garry official back-up for UFC 315 title fight

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