Jason Jackson says he has already done in the gym what Islam Makhachev did in August. The welterweight claimed he dropped Ian Machado Garry during sparring at Kill Cliff FC, a story that surfaced through a widely shared post from the X account @WayneMMA0 and quickly drew a reaction from veteran Josh Thomson.
“No disrespect to Ian, I done put Ian down in the gym. I don’t struggle with him,” Jackson said, according to the post.
That lines up with a gym rumor Brendan Allen floated earlier to ESPN. Allen didn’t attach a name to it, but he was pointed about the existence of proof. “Just know there’s video… there is someone in that gym that has slept him. Out,” Allen told ESPN. The post connecting the two stories framed Jackson’s comments as confirmation of who Allen was talking about.
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Thomson, who has clearly been beating this drum for a while, went straight at the promotion. Quoting the post on X, he wrote: “UFC won’t bring him in because he’s 35 years old and don’t want him beating their up and coming athletes they’re spending millions on to build up.” That’s Thomson’s read, and only his. Nothing in the sources indicates the UFC has said anything about Jackson either way.
Why the timing matters
This is landing in the middle of Machado Garry’s camp. The UFC announced during UFC Vegas 124 on Saturday that he’ll face former Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov in a five-round co-main event at UFC Saudi Arabia on Dec. 5 at the ANB Arena in Riyadh. Israel Adesanya, riding a four-fight losing streak, headlines against Shara Magomedov.
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It’s Machado Garry’s first fight since he lost to Makhachev at UFC 330, a result that went down as Makhachev’s first successful welterweight title defense. Makhachev, now 29-1, is waiting on the winner of Carlos Prates vs. Michael Morales for the interim belt at UFC 336 in January, which means Machado Garry needs a clean win over Amosov to keep his name anywhere near the title conversation.
Jackson’s name also gets dragged into the Amosov matchup on its own. The @WayneMMA0 post pointed out that people are citing Amosov’s loss to Jackson as evidence Machado Garry will roll on Dec. 5, then argued that logic cuts both ways if Jackson was also handling Machado Garry in the room. The poster still picked Machado Garry to win, for what it’s worth, and told his fans to tone it down.
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Quick take
Sparring stories are the cheapest currency in this sport. Every gym has a guy who swears he dropped the star, and the star almost never gets to tell his side of a round with no referee, no judges and nobody keeping score. Machado Garry might have been three weeks out from a fight and drilling something new, or he might have just gotten caught. Nobody outside Kill Cliff knows. What I’d take seriously is the part Thomson is actually mad about, which is that a 35-year-old with a win over Amosov keeps getting talked about through a gym rumor instead of a contract. Jackson can settle the sparring debate the only way that counts by fighting somebody ranked. Machado Garry gets his chance to change the subject in Riyadh on Dec. 5.
