Pat Barry Set To Knock Off Idol Mirko Cro Cop in UFC 115 Co-Main Event

Only six fights deep in his young career, Pat “HD” Barry will fulfill a dream on June 12 when he’ll meet Mirko Cro Cop.

Mirko Cro Cop is a man he idolized as a young fighter.  However, their meeting will consist of much more than a handshake, as they will battle it out while locked in a cage in the co-main event at UFC 115.

For Barry, fighting Cro Cop is rather strange, considering his admiration for the Croatian fighter.

“I had a poster of Mirko on my wall,” Barry told reporters earlier this week.  “I mean, he was in my top-five list of like scariest guys on the planet.  This was before I had even started training when my brother and I would just sit around watching K-1 fights and watching kickboxers."

Barry also credits Cro Cop with his evolution as a mixed martial artist, as well as the increase in the skill level of MMA fighters as a whole.

“This was like a guy that I idolized, and then when I started training, he was still one of my top-five favorites, and still is, top-five favorite kickboxers on earth,"Barry said.

“Like the reason why there are guys like me with the level of fighting that I have in MMA nowadays is because of him, because of him solely,” Barry said.  “He caused the rest of us to evolve.  I blame Mirko for the evolution of MMA.”

Still, Barry will be fighting a man many consider to be on the downside of his career.  At 3-3 in the UFC, Cro Cop has been less than dazzling in his Octagon appearances.  But Barry believes Cro Cop has simply faced better competition and remains deadly as ever.

“I’ll say this same thing I said to everybody else, Cro Cop is still the man he’s always been. He’s still the monster that he’s always been,” said Barry.  “But, because of him, it’s that everybody else has had no choice but to get better. Everybody else had to evolve to get better in this sport, in order to survive with guys like Cro Cop.

“So he’s not older or slower, weaker, nothing.  I will defend that till the end.  I’ve had arguments with people saying that because I don’t like that, I don’t like hearing that.  He is the man, in my eyes, that he’s always been, it’s just that everybody else has gotten better.  So anybody that says that Cro Cop is out of his prime can feel free to fight him for me Saturday.”

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