Pat Barry once had a poster of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on his wall.
Before he ever began the kickboxing training that would ultimately land him in the UFC, Barry was a fan of the sport. He and his brother spent time watching K-1 events, marveling at the technical striking precision displayed by the top kickboxers in the world. At the top of Barry’s list of favorite fighters was Filipovic, a Croatian striking machine with a penchant for violent head kicks.
“This was a guy that I idolized. When I started training, he was still one of my top five favorites, and he still is,” Barry says. “He’s one of the top five kickboxers on earth. He’s the sole reason there are guys like me in MMA today. I put the blame on him. He caused the rest of us to evolve.”
For Barry, who meets Filipovic in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 115 card in Vancouver, he’s living a dream come true. He has lived the kind of hard-knock life that causes a man to truly appreciate what he’s been given. He stood on the brink of financial ruin before his fight with Antoni Hardonk last October, and the $120,000 in bonus money he earned that night didn’t just solidify his shaky financial situation — it also gave him the confidence to continue pursuing the dream planted in his heart when he watched Filipovic mow through competition in K-1 and PRIDE years earlier.
On Saturday night he’ll be standing across the cage from a living legend of the sport, a fighter who shaped Barry’s early career as a professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. It’s difficult for Barry to figure out where the idol worship ends and the preparation for his opponent begins.
“It’s like the time I met Chuck Liddell. I mean, I nearly passed out,” Barry says. “These guys are heroes to me because I’m still a fan of the sport myself. I watch these guys, I hear about these guys, I follow these guys and now I actually get to meet them. This is a childhood dream come true. It’s amazing.”
Filipovic’s star has dimmed considerably from the time he was considered the most dangerous man on the planet. It’s been nearly four years since Filipovic put on what many consider to be the best performance of his career in winning the PRIDE 2006 Openweight Grand Prix. Since that hallmark moment, Filipovic has looked shaky at best even in victory. His UFC tenure has been marked by a drastic departure of the Cro Cop of old, but Barry is convinced that Filipovic remains a deadly opponent.
“Cro Cop is still the man he’s always been. He’s still the monster that he’s always been. He’s still just as deadly as he’s always been,” Barry says. “He’s not older or slower or weaker. What happened is that everybody else got better. But anybody who says Cro Cop is past his prime can feel free to fight him for me next Saturday. I don’t mind.”
Barry believes that Cro Cop’s influence on the ever-evolving world of mixed martial arts cannot be denied, specifically in the striking game. “When he stepped into MMA, the level of punching and kicking that he brought to the sport was just astounding. People hadn’t seen anything like it before,” Barry says. “When it came to a standup war in MMA, he forced everybody else — especially all of us in the same weight class — to get better. We had no choice to get better in order to be able to do that.”
A victory over the Croatian legend would push Barry to the next level in a UFC heavyweight division that is quickly filling up with contenders. A division that just a few years ago was considered the weakest in the UFC is now one of the strongest, lined with top contenders like Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez and onlookers like Roy Nelson and Frank Mir. A win over Filipovic gives Barry a chance to put his name right there with the best heavyweights in the world.
It’s a crucial moment in his career. Filipovic may be fading, but he’s still the kind of international star who means something to fans of the sport. A win over Cro Cop could help Barry reach the next level.
But Barry says it’s just another fight. “I never look at any of the fights I have as the one that could launch my career. I never consider them to be like that,” Barry says. “I’ve got to take every fight one at a time, no matter who it is. But I’ve obviously been doing something right, because somebody sees some potential in me. My name is being used in the same sentence as Cro Cop’s and I’m going to be standing in the same cage with him.”
Barry says he’ll seek out Filipovic in Vancouver before the fight this weekend. Not for a confrontation or the kind of pre-fight hysterics that both fighters despise. Instead, Barry will find his hero and ask him for the one thing he’s always wanted — his autograph. With that completed, he’ll step in the cage and attempt to send his own career to the next level while possibly ending the career of a long-time hero.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I might win. I might get kicked in the neck and die,” Barry says. “We’re going to touch gloves and I’m going to get the chance to test myself against him. In my eyes, he’s the man.”
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