Brock Lesnar Called Dana White and Begged Him to Help Convince Pat Barry to Retire
After retiring from mixed martial arts, former UFC fighter Pat Barry returned to his kickboxing roots to fight for the Glory World Series.
But now, following a devastating first-round knockout loss, former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is calling in the big guns to try and get his friend, Pat Barry, to retire from fighting, period.
“Brock Lesnar called me and begged me to make (Pat Barry) retire,” said Dana White in a scrum with the media following Saturday night's UFC Fight Night 40 in Cincinnati.
Anyone that knows much about Lesnar realizes that this is not an insignificant request. Lesnar isn't the type of individual to go around making this type of request or even to consider many individuals a close enough friend to feel the need to do so.
“He said, ‘I don't consider too many people my friend, and I consider Pat Barry a friend. Dana, you got to get this guy to retire,'” White continued.
“I said, ‘Listen, he's a grown man Brock. What am I gonna do?' It's different with guys like Forrest (Griffin) and Chuck (Liddell), guys that I've had relationships with for a long time. Guys who have made a lot of money. That's the difference. You look at guys like Forrest. Forrest and Chuck are multimillionaires. It's easy to make them quit.
“It's a lot tougher to make a guy quit that has to make a living. I don't want to hurt Pat Barry or throw a monkey wrench in his life or anything, but at the end of the day, the state athletic commission is gonna need to step in and help a guy like Pat Barry retire… or people that care about him.”
Barry hasn't suffered a lot of knockout losses in his kickboxing career. Prior to his knockout loss at Glory 16 on May 3, it has been nearly seven years since his last such loss in a kickboxing ring.
He has, however, suffered many more knockout losses in mixed martial arts. In the five years he fought for the UFC, Barry was knocked out or TKO'd four times. All four of those knockout losses occurred within a two-and-half-year span where Barry lost four out of his six fights, including his final fight in the Octagon in December of 2013.
