Fighters On the Rise | UFC 296: Edwards vs Covington

“The Future” is very much a part of the present conversation in the welterweight division, and he can entrench himself further in those discussions with a win over Vicente Luque on Saturday.

In terms of young talents that I have seen find their way to the biggest stage in the sport and progress up the ranks, the 26-year-old Irishman is among the very best, having reached the UFC after seven straight victories and then posted six more wins without a setback inside the Octagon to run his record to 13-0 ahead of this weekend’s 2023 finale.

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Machado Garry is technical, dexterous, and huge for the division at six-foot-three. He’s brimming with confidence, has backed up every boastful claim and proclamation he’s made to date about his career goals and ambitions, and as simple as this may sound, the Dubliner just looks the part of a burgeoning superstar that could very well sit atop the welterweight division at some point in the not too distant future.

Yes, I think he’s that good.

And Saturday is a chance to get a better read on the timeline for his potential ascent, as Luque is the kind of battle-tested, dangerous veteran that will surely make Machado Garry pay if he’s too cocky, too loose, or even just hitting this stage a little too early. The Top 10 fixture got things moving in the right direction again with a more patient, more defensive decision win over Rafael Dos Anjos earlier this year, and is the type of competitor that only needs a slight opening in order to snatch up a D’Arce choke or put your lights out with a clean right hand.

Machado Garry has been in the UFC for a tick over two years, having debuted at UFC 269 in November 2021. If he can push his record to 7-0 inside the Octagon by registering his fourth win of the year, and put himself in the thick of the title conversation after completing his sophomore year on the roster, it’s going to be hard for anyone to not give him his due as a dynamic talent with an abundance of upside heading into next year.

Cody Durden

Durden registered just a single victory in his first four UFC starts, battling Chris Gutiérrez to a draw in his debut up a division before sandwiching a narrow decision win over Aoriqileng between quick submission losses to Jimmy Flick and Muhammad Mokaev.

Since then, however, the 32-year-old from Covington, Georgia has posted four straight victories to claim a place in the Top 15 in the flyweight division ahead of his clash with Tagir Ulanbekov this weekend in Las Vegas.

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While his win over JP Buys came when he landed a blistering shot that put the South African down in a hurry, Durden amassed his other three wins during this current run of form deploying the same approach: wrestle, wrestle, and wrestle some more, trusting that his conditioning and his ability to dictate and control positions would be enough to allow him to carry the day.

It’s fitting that the American Top Team representative is from Georgia because he is an absolute bulldog in the Octagon, pressing and pressuring from the jump while constantly finding the energy to maintain that approach for 15 minutes, if need be, and lately, it’s been needed. In each of his last two wins — victories over Charles Johnson and Jake Hadley — Durden has won every round on every scorecard, offering his opponents few opportunities to have any real meaningful success while constantly grinding and grating on them for long stretches.

Buday is an intriguing figure to me in the heavyweight division.

A member of the Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’21, the 32-year-old from Slovakia has posted four consecutive victories since matriculating to the main roster to extend his winning streak to a dozen and his record to 13-1 overall.

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Admittedly, the first three wins weren’t pretty, with a technical decision over Chris Barnett starting things off before Buday won battles of attrition against Lukasz Brzeski and Jake Collier. But last time out, “Badys” showed more aggression and diversity in his skill set, taking the fight to Josh Parisian early, hurting him along the fence with punches and knees before ultimately twisting him to the canvas, attacking a kimura, and securing the first-round finish.

Buday is an absolute Goliath of a man — six-foot-four with a 77-inch reach, and he uses every ounce of the 266-pound weight allotment for heavyweight, yet moves relatively well and has shown an ability, especially last time out, to work at a good clip and maintain that deeper into fights. Regardless of the level of competition he’s faced both prior to arriving in the UFC and since, winning a dozen consecutive fights is no easy task, especially at heavyweight, where all it takes is getting hit with one lunchpail for your night to be over.

Saturday night, the Slovakian fighter welcomes Shamil Gaziev to the Octagon for the first time in an early preliminary card pairing. Like Buday, Gaziev is a DWCS grad with a shiny record, having posted 11 consecutive victories to start his professional career, including a first-round stoppage win over former UFC fighter Darko Stosic in February prior to his Contender Series win in September.

Gaziev matches Buday in height and has a slightly longer reach, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he opts to approach this contest — whether he looks to work from the clinch or at range, and how much he wishes to grapple with the Russian-born newcomer who now represents the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Much like Durden, this is a key matchup for Buday with the potential to unlock significantly bigger opportunities going forward should he emerge victorious. Five-fight winning streaks in the UFC aren’t easy to come by, and if he looks anything like he did against Parisian on Saturday, he could find himself graduating into matchups with more established names going forward.