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[Cat--Smasher]

Exhausted heavyweight Pat Barry admits UFC on FOX 3 buildup wearing thin

I'm so tired, I don't even want to talk to you any more," Barry joked with MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com).

The week leading up to a network-televised fight has been exhausting enough to prompt Barry to inquire – for the umpteenth time, he said – if the UFC wants him to win his fight, or at least show up conscious.

"I'm ready to take a nap, go to sleep, get up and do a workout later," he said. "I just shadow-boxed a little bit. I'm answering questions."

He grabbed the UFC cameraman's mic.

"I'm going to hold this as my mic until it's over with."

With stretched-wide eyes, he described his day. At 6:15 a.m., he was eating dinner in the hotel (usually, he goes to sleep in the morning and wakes in the late afternoon). At 6:30 a.m., the UFC staff shuttled him to a morning talk show. There was traffic.

After waiting an hour in the TV studio, the usually chatty Barry (7-4 MMA, 4-4 UFC) got all of five minutes to express his feelings on a fight with Lavar Johnson (16-5 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at Saturday's event, which takes place at IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., and airs live on FOX.

From there, a shuttle tried to take him to the open workouts, but traffic prompted them to hoof it after a breakfast stop.

"I think we only went three blocks – probably took two hours," Barry said.

Even getting to New Jersey was an effort. Did he mention he hates flying?

Yeah, the flight from his current home in Alexandria, Minn., to Newark, N.J., was delayed due to gusty winds and heavy rains. He considered driving but would have missed his press obligations.

"We need a UFC bus ticket," Barry said. "Send a UFC train pass. No more UFC airplanes."

Thankfully, he doesn't have to worry too much about training. This late in the game, it's about maintenance, keeping his cardio in check, and keeping up with the UFC's promotional machine.

Or maybe just putting up with it. Because if there's one thing that's exhausting as the schedule, it's the questions sometimes asked of him.

"I've been asked 10 times already today, 'Are you ready for Saturday?' What kind of question is that? 'No. I'm fighting Saturday? I thought this was just interviews.'

"I've been asked, 'Are you going to win on Saturday?' No, put money on him because I'm throwing this. It's just the ignorance that comes around."

Barry puts up with a fair amount of that on Twitter, as well, where every choice is dissected and every mistake amplified. It's taught him people focus far more on the negative than the positive.

"Nobody says, 'Stefan Struve, great triangle,'" Barry said. "They say, 'Pat Barry, you suck on the ground.'

"I had a one-second knockout. My second MMA fight, the ref said, 'fight,' I threw a high kick (and) knocked the guy out before the clock even came on the screen. And people got on the Internet and were like, 'Your stupid haircut.' People are going to be negative no matter what."

But Barry accepts this as reality, same as the professional obligations that wear him down. It's part of the job.

Johnson has ham hocks for hands and has no problem trading punches, and that's why he'll try to avoid getting hit in the face with one of them. He'll do what it takes to win the fight, even if that means taking it to the ground, where, according to everyone, he sucks.

The best part of all of this – the planes, trains and automobiles, the questions, the haters – is not the fight, as many in his shoes would say. It's the moment when it's all over.

"I don't know what people are talking about – 'All the hard work is done, this is just time to relax and party now!'" Barry said. "Relax? How do you relax before a fight on Saturday?

"I have no idea. The best part of my week is Sunday when I'm going home."

Exhausted heavyweight Pat Barry admits UFC on FOX 3 buildup wearing thin | MMAjunkie.com

[Pasha K]

I absolutely agree that people ask extremely stupid questions, and just love to make negative comments.
On the other side, he knows that he is a UFC fighter, he is very famous and he earns a lot of money so all those boring interviews, all those travels inside a plane, being stuck in the traffic are things that normal people have to deal with (except the interviews) so it is not that he is suffering way too much.

Mexico City has almost 25 million people. The traffic everyday here is really horrific.
He hates traveling in plane, I hate traveling in metro.
Everybody has to deal with those kind of things, it is a normal thing.
He is complaining too much IMO about that.

Being said that, I like him as a fighter and I hope he knocks Lavar's head off with a nice high kick.

[MIZjitsZOU]

This will be a great fight. I always look forward to watching Pat Barry! He is a great character as well. I agree with Pashak that he is bitching a little to much for a guy that is living a dream life (in some our opinions). War Pat B.

[Y2JUBAE]

Originally Posted by Rocky>Fedor

I absolutely agree that people ask extremely stupid questions, and just love to make negative comments.
On the other side, he knows that he is a UFC fighter, he is very famous and he earns a lot of money so all those boring interviews, all those travels inside a plane, being stuck in the traffic are things that normal people have to deal with (except the interviews) so it is not that he is suffering way too much.

Mexico City has almost 25 million people. The traffic everyday here is really horrific.
He hates traveling in plane, I hate traveling in metro.
Everybody has to deal with those kind of things, it is a normal thing.
He is complaining too much IMO about that.

Being said that, I like him as a fighter and I hope he knocks Lavar's head off with a nice high kick.

I honestly didn't even notice him complaining. I live in America. Many humans in America live in a world, in which the more you complain, cry, bitch and moan, the better life becomes for them. These humans will yell that they are offended or yell that something is not fair, and everyone else must break their backs to please them.

An interesting trait among these humans, I believe the politically correct term is "crybaby f*ckwads" is that they are only able to comprehend unfairness as it related directly to them. They could be watching television and see African children starving to death and at that moment, realize that because they are so overweight, Walmart must now provide them with small automobiles to drive around the store in because it's not their fault that they order 5 large pizzas for themselves for breakfast. They can cry that a test is biased against them if they fail and then be allowed to proceed ahead of those that passed. They can condemn you for your religion, meanwhile prohibiting anyone to even speak of theirs. There are so many examples that i would have to dedicate my life to typing them in order to get a fraction of them on here.

These humans come in all shapes sizes and colors and until they start speaking, you can't even tell that they are "crybaby f*ckwads"! That is the scary part. It's like that movie "They Live" in which you need special sunglasses to see the monsters. Amazingly, I have not noticed any humans like this in countries that are actually suffering, not one complaint.

So no, I didn't think Barry was complaining too much because I live in America, home of the "crybaby f*ckwads", thus I am numb to the average complaint.

On another note, I hope Barry wins.

[TBEAR]

Pat is the man