The Ultimate Fighting Championship's UFC Fan Expo took place at the Hynes Convention Center, in beautiful downtown Boston, Massachusetts, and I was fortunate enough to be there in person (well worth the 9-hour drive from Ontario, Canada).

The Expo was in prelude to the much anticipated UFC 118 event featuring a lightweight title re-match between champion Frankie Edgar and former champion, B.J. Penn. A heavyweight fight between UFC Hall of Fame member Randy Couture and boxer turned MMA fighter, James Toney was also set to co-headline the event (in case you didn’t already know).

Walking around with my son Jacob, my friend Kevin (Carried Out Fight Gear) and his son Matthew, we had a collectively awesome time and met numerous UFC Superstars throughout the day.

In the upcoming week, I will be rolling out several personal adventures (oh yes...I met Tito Ortiz), so please stay tuned.

To start you off, I had the privilege of speaking briefly with one of the friendliest and coolest fighters at the entire Expo—Pat Barry.

Pat recently fought and lost against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a three round battle at UFC 115. What was amazing about that fight was that Barry broke both his hand and his foot during the first round of action, but still pressed on and continued.

In my opinion, that has got to be one of the more impressive losses ever in the UFC, and Barry can definitely hold his head high in knowing that he never once gave up.

The true heart of a Champion.

This is my interview, please enjoy:


James Ryan: So Pat, I heard you chatting with some of the others fans about the questions you get regarding your fight with Cro Cop and how they feel that perhaps you gave him ‘too much respect’ in that fight. If you could have done anything different in that fight, what would that be?

Pat Barry: I would have drank more milk before the fight.

To me, my game plan was excellent, everything was there to do what we were supposed to do, the only problem was, we didn’t plan for broken bones. You can’t really plan for that. I punched him in the head and broke my hand. I kicked him in the elbow and broke my foot. I threw another low kick and he gave me some damage to my left shin—all in the first four minutes of round one. So we couldn’t really plan for that.

And so I’ll be honest, I panicked—I didn’t know what to do after that. I mean, we all get bumps and bruises, but three of my four weapons were gone as soon as the fight started, so I just held my breath and hoped that he was going to run into my left hand.


James Ryan: [Laughs] How would you feel about a re-match, and when would you like for that to happen if you do?

Pat Barry: I would love a re-match. I would love a re-match with Cro Cop. The fact...

How about this, nobody knows, as of right now, if he still fights in November, on October 1st, he sent me a message last night, I’m gonna go to his house in Croatia for six weeks, to help him to get ready for his fight in November. We’ve developed a really good friendship and we’ve maintained it ever since.


James Ryan: Wow, that’s great! I thought that I had also heard that Brock Lesnar had asked you to train?

Pat Barry: On September 12th, I’ll be going to Brock Lesnar’s camp for three to four weeks, to help him to get ready for his fight against Cain Velasquez.


James Ryan: That’s awesome!

Well Pat, thank you for your time and I really commend you for continuing to fight with all of those broken bones.

Pat Barry: Well, 12-minutes with Crop Cop with only one hand, the only game plan that I had going into round three was to spin around like a fan and hopefully he was going to run into it, man.


James Ryan: [Laughs]

Pat Barry: It just didn’t happen. Maybe next time.


James Ryan: Maybe. Thanks Pat.

Pat Barry: You’re welcome James, thank you.

This is my interview. If you don’t like it…I have others. Check them out at www.mrjamesryan.com

Carried Out Fight Gear was founded in 2009 by a group of ex-fighters who realized that the true essence of a warrior was being lost by some people giving up. The Carried Out mindset of “One Way Out—Carried Out” signifies that a fighter will never surrender, and will fight to the very end. Leaving everything he/she has in the ring, on the mat, or in the cage.

ONE WAY OUT…CARRIED OUT!