Barry ‘Baffled’ by Beltran’s Resilience After ‘Troops 2’ Bout

Patrick Barry | Sherdog.com

Since besting Joey Beltran at UFC “Fight for the Troops 2,” the former kickboxer has been hit by a flood of comments from naysayers regarding his game plan, his performance and his post-fight speech. Barry spoke exclusively to Sherdog.com last week regarding the outcome of his Jan. 22 scrap and the damage inflicted on his opponent.

Leading up to the fight, Barry made liberal use of the term “zombie” when describing Beltran. After battering the leg of “The Mexicutioner” with low kicks for three straight rounds, Barry asserts that his description of his opponent was not as hyperbolic as people may have thought.

“I knew going into the fight that he was a zombie. That wasn’t a joke. That was a factual message. This guy’s attributes are getting hit and not blinking or getting shook. He just keeps walking forward,” Barry told Sherdog.com. “I kicked him in his face five times and he didn’t even stumble, he didn’t back up, nothing. I’m talking about stiff kicks to the face, and he took them. So, the game plan going in was to beat his leg to death until he slowed down or until he couldn’t walk any further.”

Barry began landing low kicks early in the fight, and Beltran seemed affected by them even from the first blow that found his thigh. Among the criticisms received by Barry was that he did not go for the kill in round one by chopping Beltran down as soon as possible. According to Barry, however, it just wasn’t that simple.

“I saw [that the kicks bothered him]. But the game plan wasn’t to get in there and see if I could throw 60 low kicks in the first 40 seconds. Low kicks don’t just land every time you throw them,” said Barry. “You know what happens when you just throw kicks for no reason without any type of strategy or setup? ‘Cro Cop’ blocks them and your foot breaks.”

Chief among Barry’s strategies against his uber-resilient foe was to pick his shots and gradually wear Beltran down.

“Did the first [three] hurt him a lot? Yeah, but he took 37 more of them in the next 12 minutes and was still standing,” said Barry. “It’s called the slow cook. That’s what low kicks do. With low kicks, you don’t just throw two of them and then the guy blacks out. That’s not how they work. Not with a zombie, anyway. A human would have died, but not a zombie.”

During the third round, Barry landed one particularly crushing shot to his foe’s quadriceps that crumpled Beltran and sent him to the mat. As the K-1 veteran followed his opponent to the floor, he utilized some unorthodox offense. Rather than immediately targeting Beltran’s head, Barry threw a spiking hammer fist at his opponent’s thigh.

“I was going to punch his leg off. I was so annoyed that the leg had not been severed from his body that I was going to punch it, elbow it, headbutt it, bite it... I was going to go get a bat. I would have shot him with a gun if I had one,” Barry joked.

Though Barry won the fight, inflicting a seemingly absurd amount of damage to his foe’s left leg, Beltran seems to be no worse for the wear. Not only did the stout heavyweight absorb all of Barry’s kicks and continue to fight to the final bell, but he has since claimed over Twitter that he was back in the gym and training the following Monday. Beltran has even posted pictures of his surprisingly un-bruised legs in order to assure fans that he is fine. Simply put, all of this is a bit frustrating to Barry.

“It was a mystery how he was still standing. It had me totally baffled. When you chop a zombie’s leg off, he comes at you hopping on one foot. I knew that going in. But anybody on earth would become human again after all those low kicks,” said Barry.

“Since the fight, I really haven’t been able to sleep. I can’t stand not solving riddles, and this is a riddle that has got me stumped. I have no idea how he was writing on Monday that he was back in the gym doing squats and running stairs. That’s impossible. That doesn’t even register for me, because my leg still hurts [from landing the kicks].”

Despite what most would consider an excellent performance, Barry has still had to deal with criticism, and not only about the fight itself.

“No one has given me negative critiques about the fight face-to-face, but I read a lot on the Internet, and I’m getting text messages from unknown numbers,” said Barry. “[People are asking me], ‘What’s that gay speech that you gave at the end about your dead pappy? You only did that so you could solidify that you really got the win.’ Right, because the judges have a time machine. They heard the speech, went back in time and made me the winner.”

Barry’s post-fight interview was an emotional tribute to the members of the U.S. Armed Forces in attendance and his deceased father, who was also a serviceman.

“Jan. 17 was the 26-year anniversary of my dad [passing away]. That’s the dog tag that I always wear that everybody knows about. I don’t wear any rings or watches or anything else. I was on an Army base, and my dad was in the Army, so I just wanted to give that shout out and explain. Just to be able to fight in front of the troops was amazing. To be able to honor them, to honor my dad, and put on a show for all of them is why [I gave my speech],” explained Barry.

“Every year, on the date [of his death], we have a day. We say a little prayer -- just go outside and talk to a tree, just to talk to dad, you know? So it was cool that my fight happened to be on an Army base in front of a bunch of Army personnel.”

With the durable Beltran now in his rear-view mirror, Barry declined to call out anyone in the heavyweight division when asked about his future. He did jokingly assert, however, that a cut in weight might be in the cards.

“Actually, I think I’d like to drop down to 107 pounds and fight Scotty Jorgensen,” Barry deadpanned.

While a bout with Jorgensen will stay in the fantasy realm, a matchup with teammate Matt Mitrione is a very real possibility in a competitive heavyweight division. Many teammates refuse to fight one another on the grounds of friendship, but according to Barry, he and “Meathead” have an understanding regarding a potential fight.

“I don’t want to fight him and he doesn’t want to fight me. We’re teammates. But we both agreed that we would do it.”