Filed under: UFC
Pat Barry is the shortest heavyweight in the UFC, and on Saturday night he’s preparing to step into the Octagon with the UFC’s tallest fighter, Stefan Struve.
But the 5-foot-11 Barry says he has no reason to fear the reach advantage of the 6-foot-11 Struve, saying that he has long since grown accustomed to fighting taller fighters, and noting that shorter men have found a way to beat Struve in the past.
“I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal in this fight,” Barry said of the reach difference. “Everybody Stefan comes across, fights and trains with is shorter than he is. Everybody that I come across, fight and train with is taller than I am. So this fight is going to be everything normal. How often does Stefan Struve come across someone taller than him? Not very often. And I haven’t come across many heavyweights shorter than I am. So I think this is going to be pretty normal. I’m accustomed to guys being taller than I am and Stefan is accustomed to guys shorter than he is.”
Still, Barry said he made a point of finding a tall sparring partner who could help him out in preparation for the Struve fight.
“I found a guy I call the black Struve,” Barry said. “Maurice Green, who’s 6-foot-9, he’s a guy who came in for three weeks, a wrestler turned kickboxer out of Chicago. He was a guy I brought in in order to find my range and work my distance. And then we’d have Marty Morgan, who’s 6-foot-3, stand on a stool while I threw punches and kicks at him.”
Struve said he hopes he can prove Barry wrong and demonstrate that reach is a big deal in MMA. But he also acknowledged that he has made tactical mistakes in the past and allowed short fighters to get in close to him, most notably in Struve’s most recent fight, a knockout loss to Travis Browne.
“I’m a lot taller than he is and I plan on using the reach, stand on the outside and pick him apart,” Struve said. “The last fight I made a stupid mistake, I was coming in and he was coming in with his punch. I should have used my reach better, but I’ve been working with that with new coaches and I’ve improved a lot with that. I’m always working on getting better on the outside and trying to use my reach as I should. “
At 5-foot-8, Dominick Cruz, the UFC bantamweight champion who will fight in Saturday’s main event, is also accustomed to having a reach advantage in his fights. Cruz noted that Struve has a major reach advantage over Barry, and that Cruz himself will have a significant reach advantage against his opponent Saturday, the 5-foot-3 Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.
“Reach is a big deal as long as you know how to use it,” Cruz said. “A short fighter has to know how to fight like a short fighter, a tall fighter has to know how to fight like a tall fighter. It’s very easy for a tall fighter to get sucked into the inside game. The only reason reach is worth anything is if you know how to use it and stay on the outside, force the other guy to telegraph kicks, telegraph punches, telegraph shots. I definitely think reach is a big advantage and something that can be used very effectively.”
For Struve, the question is whether he can take that reach advantage he always has, and use it effectively — as he too often hasn’t. Barry is hoping the reach advantage turns out to be a non-factor.