"Apparently I cannot land a punch if you're not moving. If you're not moving your head, I can't hit you, but if you're on the run, I can land something, because I don't think any of the punches I threw when he was on the ground landed. I beat his shoulders to death (laughing). I got no gripes. If Dan Miragliotta would have stopped that fight, he would have robbed Cheick Kongo from one of the greatest comebacks ever. He would have robbed Cheick Kongo of that because of the way it turned out; and if he would have stopped the fight, he would have robbed the world from one of the most entertaining 2 1/2 minutes ever seen...Being a fan and looking at it from an outside point of view, that was a hell of a 2 1/2 minute fight with the greatest finish of all time. The way that it ended was so much better than if I would have continued punching him and got the stoppage," stated UFC heavyweight Pat Barry, who talked about his thrilling fight with Cheick Kongo this past weekend at UFC on Versus 4. Despite being on the losing end of the equation, Barry is pleased with the fact that the fight provided excitement while it lasted and ended in dramatic fashion. Check out what else he had to say about his performance, his future plans and much more.
PC: Congratulations on a great fight, even though it didn't go your way. How do you feel?
PB: Again, nothing went wrong. Everything that I trained to do physically and all of the mental training that I had in preparation for this fight, everything that I prepared myself to do throughout the entire training camp was done in that fight.
PC: You were fighting a good fight up until the point where you got caught. If you watch the replay, Dan Miragliotta, he didn't grab you, but he touched your back. It didn't seem to have any bearings on you as far as stopping your attacK, but what did you feel?
PB: I felt his hand slide down my back and he stepped on my foot at the same time (laughing). I was thinking in my head before he touched me, "This fight is almost over." Before he stumbled on us, I was thinking the fight was almost over. And then, when he got closer to us, I was thinking, "It really is almost over." Then when he touched me, I was like, "Shit, he's not really good at pulling me off of him." I was thinking he was trying to pull me off of him, but I always see referees dive on guys or they will clothesline you off of a guy. So when he touched me, I thought he was trying to pull me off of him, but he's not really good. I thought he missed me (laughing), but that didn't stop me from hitting him. I thought he was stopping the fight, but the fight wasn't stopped, so therefore I was going to keep going until he convincingly stopped me. Cheick Kongo was still moving and crawling and grabbing around my leg. He was doing something. He wasn't completely out like I was (laughing).
PC: When he stood up and backed against the cage, what were you thinking? Talk us through the end of the fight?
PB: Well, he stands up and wobbles backwards. He wasn't there. His body was there, but he was still gone from all of the shots I hit him with. I walked forward and I went in for the kill. I went in for the finish. Everybody says that I'm not aggressive enough, or I don't have a killer instinct, and ever since the fight, I've heard, "you're too aggressive", "you gotta tame your killer instincts", and so on. You know what? You can't win in this sport. In one sense, they say I had too much respect for him, and now it's like I didn't respect him enough. I went in psycho and he, out of instinct and even though he wasn't there, threw a punch. He was in it enough to know what was coming at him and he threw a punch. I put my left arm up to block it and unfortunately, that was the wrong side. I put up a glove to block and loaded my right hand counter, but that little sneaky mouse glove went right underneath my thumb and right above my shoulder and popped me right in the back of my ear and shook the shit out of me, man. I was like, "Whoa!" I was half blind, but I knew where his head was, so...now think, this is all within a second. I was like, "I am really dazed, but I'm about to launch a right hand and it's going to land, kill him, and break my arm." I was going to put everything into that one punch, and as I came around the corner to throw it, my left hand was down. My mistake. I was dazed too and that last one that got me was it. I didn't feel anything. I saw it coming, but I didn't feel anything.
PC: I told a friend of mine that. A lot of people didn't see the ear shot, but I saw your legs kinda straighten out a little bit and then the uppercut landed, but you can definitely see that the ear shot bothered you.
PB: Yup. You know what? If I would have backed up, maybe within 5 or 6 seconds, I would have been able to re-gather myself. But in a, let's say life or death situation, you just react. It bopped me and then it was like, "Alright, I gotta land one punch on him." I automatically knew that it went from me being totally conscious and him being completely gone and dazed to now we're both on the same playing field, so whoever lands the next punch is going to win. That punch made me as loopy as him. It could have gone either way. He didn't have to hit me right on my jaw line; if he would have just hit me with anything in the head, I was going to be gone. It's like when you are playing a video game and you get hit and your energy level goes down and then it slowly starts to creep back up, but then one more shot and you're done. Anything he would have hit me with...it didn't have to be that awesome hooking uppercut right on the jaw line. What an accurate punch to throw while you are unconscious. Hey man, why do I keep losing to dudes who are dead?
PC: No shit, man (laughing).
PB: Tim Hague was totally unconscious when he choked me out, Cheick Kongo didn't know where he was when he knocked me out, and Cro Cop said he was out throughout the whole fight. Apparently somebody wrote, "if Pat Barry is kicking your ass, you're going to beat him," so what better strategy for me to have than to just not hit people at all. And you know what? There are a lot of people out there who are complaining that Dan Miragliotta should have stopped the fight, but look at it from this point of view. One, I got no gripes against the fight. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't have done anything different. I came in with a certain game plan and with a certain aggression level and it showed. I came in to finish him in 30 seconds. I knocked him down and dove on him and I threw 40,000 punches. And apparently I cannot land a punch if you're not moving. If you're not moving your head, I can't hit you, but if you're on the run, I can land something, because I don't think any of the punches I threw when he was on the ground landed. I beat his shoulders to death (laughing). I got no gripes. If Dan Miragliotta would have stopped that fight, he would have robbed Cheick Kongo from one of the greatest comebacks ever. He would have robbed Cheick Kongo of that because of the way it turned out; and if he would have stopped the fight, he would have robbed the world from one of the most entertaining 2 1/2 minutes ever seen.
PC: Kongo definitely deserved Knockout of the Night, but I thought you guys deserved Fight of the Night as well.
PB: Yeah! And you know, me watching it myself and knowing that it's me that this happened to a couple of days ago, that's a great fight to watch man. I'm a fight fan first. Fuck it, man, that's cool as fuck to watch. It's exciting and it's one helluva rollercoaster. If he would have stopped the fight, we would have all been robbed of that; that 2 ½ minutes of awesomeness to watch. We would have never had that and we wouldn't have had a #6 on the Top Ten Plays of the Week on ESPN.
PC: I've talked to you after some of your previous losses, but I don't think I've ever seen you as dejected as you were after this fight when they were announcing Kongo as the winner. What was going through your mind once you came to and your trainers told you what happened?
PB: Well, one, when I was laying flat on my back, even though my eyes are open, my consciousness came back and I was looking up at Marty Morgan and, honestly (laughing), the first thing that came out of my mouth was, "Yo man, we killed him." I remember him saying, "Huh?" He looked so confused and I said, "We killed him, man. We killed him." He told me, "You're out man, just relax." And I'm like, "I'm not out; he's out. What are you talking about?" I had no idea I was laying on the ground. I thought we were standing up face to face. In my mind, because I was so aggressive and I just had a psychotic moment of aghhh, I didn't realize that I had gotten knocked out. I thought I was standing there face to face and then the doctor was like, "Hey, I want you to sit up for me." I'm thinking, "What are you talking about? How can I sit up if I'm already standing up?" The guy was like, "You're on the ground, man." And then I started realizing my surroundings and I'm like, "Holy shit, am I laying on my back? I'm on the ground?" And then the next thing that went through my mind was, "Wow, so this is what getting knocked out feels like." I have never been knocked out before, ever. Not at practice or 100 kickboxing matches, not in 9 MMA fights. I was like, "This is what getting knocked out feels like?" You know how when you wake up in the morning and you can't make a fist?
PC: Yep.
PB: It was that. It was like I was just laying there and I can talk and I can see, but I couldn't really feel anything. I couldn't really smell anything either, and then slowly but surely, my senses came back and I sat up. I have a better understanding now of why when guys get knocked out, they get really annoyed. All I wanted to do was to go tell Cheick Kongo, "Yo man, that was the shit. I can't wait to watch this." Does it suck that I lost? Yeah, sure, but I don't have any hard feelings about it, man. It was a great experience. I went in and all of a sudden, I wake up.
PC: Is a rematch with Kongo something that you would entertain because the fight was so exciting?
PB: Yeah, I mean, the weigh-in was entertaining. We were a monster on stage. I was thinking, "We don't have to wait until tomorrow. We can do it right here on the stage. Why make them wait until tomorrow?" And then when he put his forehead on my forehead, I got stiff neck on him. I didn't move. I wasn't going anywhere. In my head, I was thinking, "Bitch, if I was a little bit taller." It was all-around entertaining. I just don't want anybody to think that I am sitting around with this Cheick Kongo picture in my head just counting down to see him again, and that I'm going to stare at this picture, and I hate his guts, and I gotta get him back, and I gotta prove to the world that I can beat him. Man, I got no hold-ups about that. People are like, "So you gonna fight him again, right?" If they give it to me, yeah, but I don't need to fight him again to beat him or feel fulfilled. A fight is a fight, man, and sometimes you just get hit with shit. We see that all of the time, man. I don't have no ill will or hard feelings. I don't feel that Dan Miragliotta should have stopped it. I don't think I got robbed. I got punched in the neck and I was out. Now, it would be awesome if I could rewind time and I could be unconscious with my eyes closed. I'm at home and I'm watching the fights and I'm laying there looking out of the top left corner of my head. I'm like, "Ah man, my momma is watching this." No gripes or anything from me. I've learned a little bit about myself from this. I have had a 10-year fight career with over 100 kickboxing matches and 9 MMA fights and I've never been knocked out before and I've knocked a lot of guys out. So knowing that it is possible, I have always gone into fights with a little bit of a reserve with fear of that happening. But it's like being a kid and every year, you fear getting on that rollercoaster at Six Flags. One year, you finally get on it and then you realize that it's not that bad. I can get knocked out and not be dead. So that one bit of reserve in my arsenal was there that I was holding back a little bit. Now, I'm not going to go in there guns a blazing, but I'm going to be even more aggressive now because it's happened. I don't have to worry about never wanting to know what it's like because it's happened. I can let go of the fear of the unknown.
PC: They have a card in New Orleans on September 17th. I know you're just coming off of a fight, but is that a card you want to be on?
PB: You know what? I don't necessarily, um, this is me and I know people will probably take this the wrong way, but I'm not that average fighter that's sitting home all upset because I lost and that I got knocked out. Maybe that's where I stand out a little bit, but the fights that are going to New Orleans, I personally would rather go as a guest or a fan. I would rather sit in the crowd and watch the fight in New Orleans than actually fight in New Orleans. That's just me though. I don't get to go home that often, but when I do get to go home, I like to eat...a lot! I love to enjoy my city, man. In fact, it's not a city; New Orleans is the greatest country in the world because it's not a city. It's the greatest little world in the world. If I were to go there for a fight, I would sit in a hotel room for 5 straight days and only train. I wouldn't be able to enjoy what made me me. I'm not going to say no, and it would be an honor to perform in front of my hometown, but I personally would rather go as a fan, man. I want to go sit in the crowd with everybody with my St. Aug t-shirt on and high-five people than to actually be there not talking to anybody, not hanging out with anybody, and not seeing the city. I would rather go as a fan. I love my job and I love what I do. I don't necessarily like what it takes to do my job, but watching a UFC is so much better than being in the UFC. Sitting down and watching a show and enjoying the fights is so much better than fighting. It just is, but maybe that's just me and I have a different kind of character. Fighting is awesome, but it hurts a lot and you forget stuff. But man, just going to a show, everyone out there, if you have never been to a UFC, it's better than Christmas.
PC: I knew talking to you even right after the fight I would share some laughs with you and you should never change that man because in life, you have to roll with the punches, so why not do it after a tough loss? You never lose your sense of humor.
PB: Exactly man. I've knocked out so many people. I knock out people when I walk outside; that's just what I do. It's only a matter of time before it happens to me too. And the thing is, the more people I knock out, the more it becomes a reality that I can be knocked out too. I've lost fights, but I had never been knocked out before and every time I knocked somebody out, it was more of a realization that I can be knocked out and it happened. If you can't accept that, then you shouldn't be in this sport. I'm a reporter, but I gotta write stuff? Ah man, no. You're in the wrong profession. It's okay. I can go eat whatever I want to eat right now because I don't have to worry about Cheick Kongo. And like Joe Rogan said, if fights were won on physical appearance, Cheick Kongo would be the champion of the world. That dude's physique is ridiculous. Bruh, when that dude was first in the cage and we were pacing, I don't know if anyone has the whole walk out, but I would like to see the whole walkout. I want to see when we both get in the cage and we both start walking around in a circle. I want to see that. So if anyone has that, they can send it to me at hypeordie@yahoo.com or @hypeordie on Twitter. Send me the link because I want to see the whole thing. I didn't record it before I left; I forgot. He was leaning on the cage before we were announced and at one point in time, he stretched and a muscle jumped out of his back that I had never seen before. I'm standing there totally confident and I had no regard for his well-being whatsoever, but I was like, "You're going to have to live in America the rest of your life because you're not going to be able to go home after this fight," and that dude stretched and a muscle jumped out of his back and I remember in my head, for a split second, saying, "Oh damn! What exercise you gotta do to get that one?" I don't know what kind of bent-over row or cable pull you gotta do to get that and I didn't get a chance to ask him because I had to leave to go to the hospital. But that dude had a muscle that came out of his back that I couldn't identify. That fool had a 6-pack on his neck. Now, I'm a very heterosexual male, but I was like, "Shit man, you look nice." (Laughing) He should be in bodybuilding. Stop fighting and go pose in some magazine.
PC: It's not too many times you can congratulate a guy coming off of a loss, but congratulations on a great fight. It was entertaining and it had drama. I look forward to seeing you down here my man.
PB: Thanks brother. That's kind of weird to hear that, but like I said, I'm a fight fan also and that was a cool 2 1/2 minutes I've seen in a fight with the ultimate finish of all time. Being a fan and looking at it from an outside point of view, that was a hell of a 2 1/2 minute fight with the greatest finish of all time. The way that it ended was so much better than if I would have continued punching him and got the stoppage.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]