At 6-foot-11, Stefan Struve towers over every fighter in the UFC; he’s the tallest competitor fighting under the organization’s banner. Meanwhile, his Saturday night opponent, Pat Barry, is 5-foot-11. That height differential will make for an interesting visual at UFC Live 6, and it will also make for a difficult obstacle for Barry to overcome.
Reaching his high target will be no easy feat for Barry, who with a 74.5-inch reach, will have a nearly 10-inch disadvantage in that category. But Barry has no concerns about what appears to be a daunting challenge. In fact, he says that the fight is no different than any other for either him or Struve.
“I’m accustomed to guys being taller than I am whereas Stefan is accustomed to guys being shorter than he is,” Barry said recently. “So, like this is going to like play into our games, into our strategies, into our timing, reach, distance. Like this is going to play directly into what we’ve been training for every day since we started the job, like since we started this sport.
“So I don’t think it’s going to … I don’t think this fight is going to make it any different,” he continued. “I mean, like I said, I don’t think he’s run across any – I don’t think there’s any 9-foot-tall kickboxers. It’s something that his lifetime of training has prepared him for.”
On Thursday, the two squared up for the first time for a pre-fight staredown photo opportunity, and yes, the shot looked a bit comedic. The two could barely keep straight faces, with both cracking smiles and laughing.
Part of those loose attitudes stem from their past, as the two have known each other for a few years and get along well outside of the cage. It has allowed them to fire off one-liners at each other all throughout the leadup to the bout, and on Thursday, Struve got in the best line at the pre-fight press conference.
When asked how he expected to defend Barry’s high kicks, Struve nonchalantly answered, “Block it with my shin,” a response that drew laughter from the fighters and media.
Earlier, Barry even poked fun at himself, saying when it came to ground skills, Struve could “lay on the ground and submit me while I was standing straight up.”
But when the laughter ends and business gets serious, the two are expected to have one of the night’s most intriguing fights, not only because of the size and reach differential, but because of their respective kickboxing backgrounds.
Barry has worked hard in his recent camps to round out his game, working wrestling and jiu-jitsu with his new DeathClutch teammates, including former UFC champ Brock Lesnar and current Bellator champ Cole Konrad.
Meanwhile, Struve said he spent time sharpening up his striking, including working with renowned Romanian kickboxer Daniel Ghita.
So there is at least a friendly rivalry over who is the better striker, and neither man will want to be the first to try to take it to the ground. But “friendly” is the key word here. It’s not personal for either one. At least on the surface, it’s a test of everything that’s come before. For Barry, the challenge is simple physics. And for Struve, it’s beating Barry at his own game.
“I think that this could turn out to be a really awesome fight to where really when it comes down to it, my short arms won’t matter,” Barry said. “With his really long arms might, we might cancel each other out in a way and it might stand there and take a long time for the fight to get finished or maybe he can keep me on the end of a jab the way, you know, people eventually started keeping Mike Tyson away from them with a jab. Like, who knows? I mean it could be a little bit of anything. Anything could happen that night. So I mean range, it can be good, but at the same time it can be bad, too.”
Though tomorrow night’s bantamweight title bout pitting champion Dominick Cruz against challenger Demetrious Johnson headlines the UFC on Versus 6 event, a pivotal co-headliner will support the event.