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Barry: In all actuality, I wake up every day and ask myself, “What the hell am I doing this for? This is stupid. This guy’s going to try to kick me in the face. Why would anyone ever put their hand in the fireplace on purpose?” I said yes [to fighting Cro Cop] without even thinking about it. [They said], “You wanna fight Cro Cop?” I was. like, “Hell yeah, I want to fight Cro Cop.” As soon as I got off the phone, I was, like, “Oh, s--t. Oh, damn. OK.” But, have you ever played “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out?” Did you ever turn that game on with no intentions of ending it? I never quit Tyson’s Punch Out. I used to sit up 24 hours a day, night after night, day after day, nonstop, just playing Tyson’s Punch Out nonstop, just trying to get to the end and finish it. You want to fight Tyson at the end. You don’t want to get all the way to Piston Honda and say, “No more,” Bald Bull and say, “I beat Bald Bull. I’m finished. I don’t want to play this no more.” No, you want to get to the best. You want to fight the best.
When they said, “Do you want to fight Cro Cop?” that’s like a warp zone from “Super Mario [Brothers].” I can skip levels two, three and four? I can go straight to five? What? I have three undercard fights: Dan Evensen, Tim Hague, Antoni Hardonk. Now I get to fight Cro Cop? That’s not in the chronological order. Now, I’m not taking anything away from the first three guys, but it just doesn’t seem like Dan Evensen, Tim Hague and Antoni Hardonk … Cro Cop doesn’t seem like the next step. Cro Cop seems like a warp, like I’ve jumped eight levels. In my eyes, that’s damn near the top. It’s not the top, but that’s near the top, in my eyes, being a kid, being a fan of the sport. He wasn’t my favorite in kickboxing, but when he came to MMA, he was my favorite guy ever in MMA. I’ve always wanted to just meet the guy.
Now, not only do I get to meet him and like touch his hand and shake his hand and hopefully get a picture with him, I get to hopefully not get kicked in the face by him. How awesome is that?
Sherdog.com: Did or do you see weaknesses in someone you admired and feared so much?
Barry: Everybody’s got holes; everybody’s got weaknesses. I see a hole or two in Cro Cop. Even back in his kickboxing days, in his early Pride days, I’ve seen one or two holes. There aren’t many, but I’ve seen a few, and I’m hoping to capitalize on them.
Sherdog.com: How do you reconcile that with being afraid to fight?
Barry: I’ll be honest. I’m the first one who’s hoping the power goes out in the building and we don’t have to do this. But the best comparison I can give is a roller coaster. When you’re a kid, you get on a roller coaster, you sit there and, once you’re on, you start going up that hill for that big drop. There’s nothing you can do. You can’t get out of it. It’s the most terrifying thing ever. It’s the craziest feeling of all time, and then it goes down that first drop. It’s the scariest thing that ever happened in your life, and, once you finish the first drop and realize you’re still alive, it turns into the greatest experience of your life.
Sherdog.com: After you collected $120,000 in bonuses for “Fight of the Night” and “Knockout of the Night” against Hardonk at UFC 104 in October, you talked in interviews about how it helped you get out of a financial bind. Is this money gone yet?
Barry: The money was almost gone as soon as it was given to me because of the eight years that I’ve been pursuing the dream and digging myself into a financial hole. Every year, it would get a little bit harder, a little bit deeper. That paid off a tremendous amount of debt. That paid off eight years of pursuing the dream, of being on the grind, of not knowing where the next dollar’s coming from. That paid that hole off. There was some left over. I was able to put away for taxes and a very small retirement plan. I definitely don’t want to be punching and kicking for the rest of my life. The reason I’ve done that is by watching all these guys who have been on top of the world an end up with nothing. Been on top of the world, five cars, giant houses, and the next thing you know, they’re fighting at some small show for $2,000.
Sherdog.com: You said before the UFC paydays you were on a steady, stingy diet of rice and ketchup. What’s Pat Barry eating these days?
Barry: McDonald’s. I’m a heavyweight, man, so I eat everything. I’m not into clothes or cars or nothing like that. It all goes to eating. I eat. I eat a lot, all the time.
Sherdog.com: So what do you get on a typical trip to the drive-thru?
Barry: Six barbecue snack wrappers and maybe two ranch, or maybe two honey mustard. No drink. Then I’ll circle back around and eat an ice cream cone. I’m not opposed to eating fast food at all. I eat pizza regularly. As a matter of fact, I ate an entire tray of Bagel Bites last night. Last night, like two in the morning, I woke up and it was Bagel Bites, a box of them.
When I fought Antoni Hardonk, when we got to California and they gave me the per diem, I went to California Pizza Kitchen twice a day every day until the fight. Now, eating spinach and broccoli and water might make me physically the greatest, physically looking appealing, in the most physical shape possible, but I’m totally miserable. So it doesn’t matter how in shape I am. I can’t function. Eating the way that I want to, I might not be the prettiest thing to look at and I might not be the most in-shape person ever, but I’m completely happy. And there’s nothing more efficient than a happy fighter. That’s words from Mike Tyson himself.
Sherdog.com: With that said, I guess light heavyweight is never a possibility for you?
Barry: Everybody thinks I’m too small for heavyweight, right? I’m 256 right now. I’ll come in at 250, and that’s only because I’m going to throw up six pounds the morning of the weigh-ins. They’re looking at my height. They hear 5-11, 240, and they go, “You’re too short.” I’m too small for heavyweight at 5-11, 240, yet Stefan Struve at one point in time was 6-1, 215 pounds, but nobody think he’s too small. I’m heavier than Cro Cop. I’m heavier than Cain Velasquez, and I’m an inch shorter than him. I’m too small because no one’s seen my legs because the shorts are too long. I’m all legs.
Sherdog.com: What Cro Cop performance do you think tells us the most about him?
Barry: His last performance against Perosh. He didn’t give an “A” game on a guy who took the fight on one-day notice. That showed that he is human. Cro Cop didn’t try to go an end that guy at all.
Sherdog.com: That sounds a lot like you versus Dave Rochon in your first fight.
Barry: I saw a lot of myself in that. That is part of what gave me a good feeling about the fight. I learn from my mistakes. I’ve grown a lot.