There's nothing nasty about Pat Barry outside the cage. Inside the Octagon can sometimes be a different story. If he's focused, Barry can be one of the most devastating strikers in the heavyweight division. That's a big if.
Too often, Barry's pleasant disposition follows him into his fights. The stocky kickboxer says there will be no loss of focus this weekend against Joey Beltran at the UFC's Fight for the Troops 2.
"This is a feeling I haven’t had in a long time," Barry told Sherdog. "Back in my kickboxing days, I used to have these every once in a while. Just an angry, want to break something, upset at something. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is that’s giving me this feeling, this sensation, but I’m very annoyed. Like I’m extremely annoyed and I feel like I’ve got to break something."
He wasn't "annoyed" enough back in June during his last fight against Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and it cost Barry dearly.
Barry spoke often before the UFC 115 fight about what an honor it was to fight his idol. He was so pleasant it even got the normally stoic, business-like Cro Cop to lighten up.
When the fight hit the cage, the gap between the fighters was obvious. Cro Cop is a worn down 36-year-old while Barry, 31, has a lot of fight left in him. The American mauled Cro Cop early in the fight, but starting screwing around and turned things into a sparring session. Cro Cop went into survival mode and submitted a tired Barry. Since the upset loss, the talk of Barry's lack of killer instinct has been incessant.
"I’m still hearing about that, I’m still hearing people," Barry said. "My mother’s hearing this kind of [expletive]. People are approaching my mother and making these comments to her. It’s still going on now."
On the surface, Beltran appears to be a good matchup for Barry. He's a smallish heavyweight who likes to stand and bang, but he can also take a beating and has enough wrestling in his arsenal to pose a major threat to Barry if he doesn't take of business early.
Tip via 5th Round
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