‘It’s p****** me off’ – Ian Garry teases weight change amid feud with UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland

UFC star Ian Garry has suggested he could move up to middleweight to settle his beef with the division’s champion, Sean Strickland.

‘The Future’ is gearing up to face long-time welterweight contender and former teammate Vicente Luque at UFC 296 in Las Vegas on December 16.

Garry has a carefully thought-out plan that will hopefully see him win the UFC 170lb title - but he’s tempted to change course following recent clashes with Strickland.

“The more people talk, the harder I work,” Garry said on Instagram.

“I’ve got more people to prove wrong.

“It’s not fuelling me, it’s p***ing me off.

“I might have to win a middleweight world title before I win the welterweight.”

Garry’s latest camp has been disrupted by several negative incidents.

The 26-year-old was forced to defend his character after being kicked out of a gym in Birmingham which is the home of UFC welterweight king Leon Edwards.

Since then, Garry’s family has faced a wave of online abuse from social media trolls who discovered his wife, 40, wrote a book called ‘How to be a WAG’ in 2010.

Layla Anna-Lee quickly dismissed the book as ‘satire’ and condemned those making cruel comments about her – but that didn’t stop Strickland piling on.

The divisive UFC titleholder added fuel to the fire by branding the mother of Garry’s only child a ‘succubus’ and imploring his colleague to 'run away'.

Strickland later shared screenshots from an alleged text conversation with Garry, who he claimed threatened to sue him for defaming Anna-Lee.

Finally, Garry was branded a ‘cuck’ by Strickland after making his X – formerly known as Twitter – account private to focus on the biggest fight of his life.

Strickland will make the first defence of his 185lb belt when he takes on top contender Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 on January 20.

After that, there’s no obvious number-one contender at middleweight and a grudge match with Garry could be set up if the Irishman chooses to abandon his welterweight title charge.