Pat "Hype Or Die" Barry's Future: More Hype, Less Dying

There are many different ways of saying the following phrase, but to put it simply and plainly: haters gonna hate. And while there are different ways to glitz that term up and ways of making it a bit more politically correct, it’s a great term nonetheless, and one that everyone has to encounter sooner or later. UFC star Pat Barry knows that term very well, since critics continue to hound him following his high-profile loss to Mirko Filipovic. Now with a dominating performance over Joey Beltran under his belt, Barry recently took the time to address his critics and give some thoughts on what his future holds.

Here’s what Pat “HD” Barry recently had to say over at MMA Weekly: “I’ve already gotten bad things said to me as soon as I got out… I’m still hearing about kickboxing matches I lost 10 years ago. It’s never gonna go away… It’s just life in general… I haven’t had a cranky fight in a long time… No matter what, some people are just gonna hate your guts. It’s impossible to make everyone happy. Am I past that? I’m fine with it. Am I still gonna hear about? Of course, but that’s just how it goes.”

Now, if you’ll remember fans and friends, I’m of the mind that we should all leave Pat Barry alone and let the man make his money and perform at his best. I think you can only hold a big loss against a fighter for so long, and once he scores a big victory, I think that time period has officially elapsed. I’m not singling out Pat Barry in particular, although I do think this perfectly applies to him. But in general, I think it’s callous to dwell on a bad performance if a fighter rebounds in their next few performances.

I’m not saying don’t criticize them, I’m just advocating that we admit when fighters prove us wrong and we all move on. When BJ Penn suffered his second loss to Frank Edgar in a bout that was far more one-sided than their first encounter, I was one of the many wondering what the future held for BJ Penn. Then he blasted Matt Hughes in under thirty seconds. That’s all it took for me to admit that I was wrong.

I feel the same way about Pat Barry. Yes, he made some mistakes against Mirko Cro Cop. Yes, it wasn’t his best performance. But he’s moved on, and I think we should too. Against Joey Beltran, Pat Barry nearly kicked his opponent’s leg off. Those kicks were cringe-inducing. I don’t think you could convince me to take a leg kick from an angry Pat Barry if you paid me money. It’d certainly have to be a lot of money, that’s for sure.

So, what does the future hold for Pat Barry? Of that I’m not certain, but I think this win gave him the legroom (pun intended) to figure out what his future holds. It gave him the stable footing (pun intended once again) to continue his UFC career and continue to test himself against some of the best Heavyweights in the world. It’ll be very interesting to see where Barry goes from here, and to all the cynics, I think Barry’s latest performance has more than earned him the benefit of the doubt. In answering the cynics and momentarily shutting them up, Pat Barry breathed new life into his MMA career.

And what about you, fans and friends? What does the future hold for Pat Barry, and what do you think of his performance against Joey Beltran?