THE CANADIAN PRESS
Pat (HD) Barry calls Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic “one of the scariest dudes alive.” And yet Barry can’t want to step into the cage with the Croatian legend on Saturday night at UFC 115.
Barry, a colourful former kickboxer from New Orleans who trains out of Milwaukee, used to have Filipovic’s poster on his wall.
He counts Cro Cop as one of his top five kickboxers and “my No. 1 MMA guy, like ever.”
Getting the chance to fight Filipovic “is a testament that I’ve been doing something right.
“All the hard work and the sacrifice and all the time away from home and away from family and on the road by myself,” Barry continued. “All the days that I wanted to quit and all the times when I didn’t know where the next dollar was coming from time. All of that hard sacrifice is finally paying off because I’m getting in the ring with a legend like Cro Cop.”
At the pre-fight news conference this week, Barry even mused about the appropriate time to ask Filipovic for his autograph.
Their fight is the co-main event at GM Place in Vancouver (available on pay-per-view). In the main event, Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell returns to action against Rich Franklin.
Barry (5-1) says he jumped at the chance to fight Filipovic when the opportunity was offered.
“Instantly, automatically, without thinking, I didn’t hesitate, I just said yes,” Barry recalled.
But when he put the phone down, he thought briefly about what he had just got himself into.
Then again, Barry is a self-admitted extremist. “I don’t just kind of do anything . . . if I do anything. I’ve got to do it all the way.”
Hence the HD nickname — Hype or Die.
Barry, 30, says he won’t turn off the respect for Filipovic when he enters the cage.
“Not at all. That respect is going to keep me on my toes. . . . I’ve seen what he’s done to guys. I don’t know want to know what that’s like.”
The 35-year-old Filipovic (26-7-2 with one no contest) is a former K-1 fighter and Pride champion who scored wins over such stars as Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva, Josh (The Baby-Faced Assassin) Barnett, Mark (The Hammer) Coleman and Kazushi Sakuraba.
Outside the ring Filipovic’s resume is just as impressive. He was a member of a Croatian police elite anti-terrorist unit and was elected to the Croatian parliament.
But he has had an up-and-down career since making his UFC debut in 2007.
He is just 3-3 in the UFC with losses to Junior Dos Santos, Cheick Kongo and Gabriel Gonzaga. He has yet to beat a heavyweight contender, with victories over second-tier fighters Anthony (The Hippo) Perosh, Mostapha Al Turk and Eddie (The Manic Hispanic) Sanchez.
But Barry has a simple answer to those who question Filipovic’s talents.
“Fight him,” he said. “Anyone who thinks this isn’t the same Cro Cop Crop from back then can feel free to take my place … and prove me wrong.
“All the people that say this isn’t the same Cro Cop, I would like to see them say that to his face. It won’t happen . . . Everybody can say all this other stuff but that dude is still as dangerous as he’s always been. Only difference is everybody else was forced to get better because of him.”
Filipovic, who spent most of his career fighting in a ring, is also striving to get better. He had a cage installed at home and he upped his fight prep by working with Muay Thai master Ivan Hippolyte.
The Croatian paid tribute to Barry in advance of the fight, even though the two had not met at the time.
“I like him because he’s very polite. I don’t like that tough attitude, you know, fighting at the press conference, spitting at each other. This is just a sport and I like people who are acting like a sportsman. Pat is definitely a sportsman.
“He’s a good fighter, good striker. That’s what I like, I like to fight strikers . . . Patrick will stay in the standup position. It will be a good standup war. And I think the audience will be very satisfied with the fight.”
Filipovic, who is on the last fight of his UFC contract, also expects a lot of Croatians in the Vancouver crowd.
“And what fighter could wish more than that?” he asked on a media conference call. “Good opponent and excellent audience.”
The six-foot-two Filipovic last fought at UFC 110 in February in Sydney, Australia, stopping Perosh on the advice of the ring doctor after carving open a bloody gash on his forehead.
Going into the Barry fight, the Croatian says he has finally completely recovered from past knee surgeries.
Barry, meanwhile, is coming off a huge victory over fellow kickboxer Antoni Hardonk at UFC 104 in October.
The five-foot-11 Barry was giving up five inches to Hardonk but picked the big Dutchman apart in the second round with heavy punches that drove Hardonk back. He finally put Hardonk for good with a right to the temple, finishing him off with an overhand right before celebrating the win with a backflip in the cage.
“That was major league for me . . I had something to prove to myself,” Barry said. “That I am good enough, that I do have the ability to be great in this, and that it’s not a waste of time for me.”
Barry had trained with Hardonk, one of the best kickboxers in the UFC — “I knew what he was capable of doing, so mentally it was tough.”
The win was also welcome financially. Barry admits he was in trouble.
“I made a financial decision that didn’t turn out for the best and I was sitting in the hole when that fight came around,” he said. “That win couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Barry augmented his US$14,000 purse, which included a $7,000 win bonus, with $120,000 in bonuses for knockout and fight of the night.
“I was fighting for survival. Back against the wall. I had no choice but to perform.”
Barry opened his UFC account with an eye-catching win over Dan Evensen. While the big Norwegian was a journeyman opponent, Barry literally cut him down with leg kicks.
“This is better than Christmas, man. Thanks for having me,” Barry said in the cage afterwards.
Barry started promisingly in his next fight, against Tim (The Thrashing Machine) Hague at UFC 98. But the big Canadian survived an early onslaught, got Barry to the ground and rolled him into a guillotine choke.
“That was just my inexperience in MMA,” said Barry.
NOTES — In Canadian action on the card, 20-year-old welterweight Rory (The Water Boy) MacDonald of Kelowna, B.C., takes on Carlos (Natural Born Killer) Condit, Montreal middleweight David (The Crow) Loiseau faces Mario Miranda and Toronto welterweight Claude Patrick makes his UFC debut against Ricardo (The Golden Boy) Funch … The Vancouver card holds the record for the UFC’s fastest sellout, with tickets selling 30 minutes into a pre-sale to UFC Fight Club members. … The UFC 112 DVD comes out June 15 in Canada.
