It’s been seven months since UFC heavyweight Pat Barry (5-2) lost to Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovi? at UFC 115 in June of last year. Barry looked very dominant in the first round, dropping the Croatian twice. Barry’s pace slowed considerably in the second and third rounds, which may have appeared to some fans that the fighter was taking it easy on his boyhood idol. “Cro Cop” would earn the submission victory sinking in a rear-naked choke in the third round to win the fight.
Ever since then, Barry has received criticism from fans almost every day, even the fighters mother is hearing comments from disgruntled fans.
What Barry wants to point out s that he didn’t throw the fight, that in fact he broke both his hand and his foot early in the match, and was simply in survival mode for the rest of the bout.
Now he’s set to meet Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran on Jan. 22 at the UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 event, and he’s looking to get rid of some of the aggression that has built up over the past seven months.
“My mother’s hearing this kind of s–t. My mother’s hearing this,” Barry said. “People are approaching my mother and making these comments to her. It’s still going on now…”
“This is a feeling I haven’t had in a long time,” he said. “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…”
“Every time I’m going for it,” he said. “No matter what the world may believe or have seen. Even in the last fight, I put it all out there on the line every time. I know that of myself. From what I’ve seen of Joey Beltran and heard of him, he does it too. It’s obvious when you see the guy fight, he’s fighting with his heart.”
Beltran was a guest on Sherdog Radio (full interview beginning at 7:00) recently talking the loss to Crop Cop, his upcoming fight, and former champ Brock Lesnar.