Neil Magny has expressed that he holds no grudge against Ian Machado Garry, despite Garry’s trash talk being used against Magny in a custody battle, stating that he wouldn’t wish such a situation on anyone.
Neil Magny isn’t one to hold grudges. Even against Ian Machado Garry, who used their trash talk as a weapon in Magny’s recent custody battle.
Before UFC 292 last August, things got heated. Magny and Garry exchanged words, with Magny promising an “ass whooping.” He added, “being a father, I’ve become quite accustomed to that kind of whooping now.” Garry didn’t take it lightly. He painted Magny as a child abuser.
Magny’s estranged wife used this in court. She used it as ammunition in their custody battle over their son. Despite this, Magny doesn’t hold ill will towards Garry. He wouldn’t wish the same on him or anyone else.
“I hope he never had to go through it, or never has been through it,” Magny said on The MMA Hour. He describes the experience as one of the most difficult things he’s ever faced. “That tops every type of experience I’ve had thus far, whether it’s grief, or misery, or whatever else it may be.” He wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy.
“It’s truly a difficult situation,” he said. The stakes? His ability to be a parent to his child. “Somebody else gets to decide how long you can see your children, when you can see your children, all that kind of stuff. It’s a very uneasy feeling.”
Magny didn’t appreciate his personal life being used as fodder for Garry’s trash talk. Especially given the stakes of his custody hearing. “It was a very uneasy feeling,” he said. “To have an opponent take that lightly and make it a gimmick, and some of the things you’re saying in press conferences are being quoted in emails for my partner’s attorney to use in court and that kind of stuff. It was just a very uneasy feeling for me.”
“This is beyond fighting. This is my actual life. Forget legacy, forget wins, forget record, forget all that stuff. My sole purpose on Earth is to be the best father as possible to my kids.” The things said in that press conference being quoted and used against him in court? “That was just an uneasy feeling. I didn’t like it at all. It took a huge toll on me.”
Lately, Garry has been on the receiving end of personal trash talk. Fighters like Sean Strickland and Colby Covington have aimed attacks at his wife, Layla. Strickland even called her a “sexual predator” because she’s 14 years older than him.
Whether the verbal assault was aimed at Garry or his family, Magny didn’t wish that upon him. No matter what he had to go through in his own personal life. “To go through that experience and see what that had the potential of doing, there’s no way I could turn around and say, ‘I wish this person goes through it now,’” Magny said. “That’s just nothing I’d ever want to go through again, nor would I wish anyone else to go through that, especially when you have an innocent child that’s in the middle of it that doesn’t deserve one parent or another being taken away from unjust causes.”
Magny wishes Garry and his family the best. He offered them words of encouragement. “With everything that’s happening with him now, I hope he gets to the point where he can figure it out,” Magny said. “At the end of the day, he and his wife have a child that they have to raise as well, and I hope they can figure it out for the sake of their child.”
“Going through what I did, and seeing how that affected me personally, to see how it affected my kids personally, I don’t have room in my heart to hold grudges for anyone at that point. I’m just very grateful and very thankful that issue was able to get resolved quickly and didn’t affect my relationship with my children at all.”
As for his own situation, Magny didn’t lose out during the custody battle. He’s thankful that cooler heads prevailed through the whole messy ordeal. “In the end, I was very fortunate that I had a very rational judge that oversaw my case,” Magny said. “[The judge] understood the total landscape where that kind of criticism and where that kind of stuff was coming from.”
“It was a great play by my ex-wife’s attorney, but at the end of the day, I was very fortunately that I have a very level-headed judge that oversaw it all and it didn’t affect his decision at all, as far as allowing me to have 50-50 custody with my children.”