People keep telling Pat Barry he needs to get over the Joey Beltran fight. You won the decision, they say. So what if you didn’t knock him out? A victory is a victory. Take it and move on.
Barry hears them, and he knows they’re right. But after landing so many of his trademark kicks to Beltran’s legs and head throughout their three-round affair at the UFC’s second ‘Fight for the Troops’ event in January, Barry is still shaken by his inability to stop, or even seriously damage Beltran with what he thought were fight-ending strikes.
“I can’t let it go,” Barry told MMA Fighting. “I’m baffled. That’s a riddle I can’t solve. Out of the hundreds of kickboxing fights I’ve had and all the MMA fights I’ve done, I’ve never seen that. I’m shocked. It makes no sense, and I can’t figure it out. I’ve never kicked a heavybag that many times, and the guy was still walking. No bruises, no swelling, nothing. [He was] back in the gym on Monday doing squats and getting kicked by other people.”