Pat Barry vs. Mirko Cro Cop
Pat Barry couldn’t hide the fact that he was a Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic fanboy in the lead up to their fight at UFC 115 in 2010.
“Cro Cop is a legend, he’s a living legend,” Barry told MMAWeekly before their heavyweight scrap. “He’s one of my heroes. He’s a guy I had a poster of, a guy I had on my top five list of never want to fight ever, and he’s the man.”
Cro Cop was somewhat bemused by the adulation Barry was giving him, but couldn’t help but be taken with his opponent’s infectious enthusiasm.
As such, during the actual fight the two were seen high-fiving, hugging and grinning at each other, while at the same time beating each other up, with Barry dropping Cro Cop twice in the first round, but also breaking his hand and foot in the process, which eventually led to him being submitted in the third round.
Despite the loss, Barry remained as big a fan of Cro Cop as ever.
“How cool is it that ‘Cro Cop’ gave me a high-five twice in the first round? To me, that was an acknowledgement of my presence, an acknowledgement from him that, hey, you did show up to fight and you deserve to be in this cage. That’s what I took from it. That means a lot.”
And best of all, the two would go on to become good friends and training partners afterwards, even going on a road trip together.
