Nice Payday Saves UFC Fighter From Financial Ruin

Financial troubles are not major news in these day and age as they’ve hit almost everyone to varying degrees. There are certainly a whole lot of people around this country simply managing to barely get by paycheck to paycheck. Its even harder for people who’s paychecks don’t come in at a steady pace. Professional MMA fighter Pat Barry is one of those people and he headed into UFC 104 on October 24th of this year a desperate man. Barry had been down on his luck and was really at the end of his rope. Now UFC has long been criticized for not paying its fighters as much as boxers tend to get, but they do dole out some pretty nice post fight bonuses for things such as fight of the night and knockout of the night. Pat Barry ended up getting both of those bonuses and he sure did need them.

In an interview on MMAScrapsRadio, Barry described his financial situation heading into the fight with Antoni Hardonk at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“I still had my apartment but if something would’ve happened and the fight had been canceled, I would’ve been evicted six days later.”

This is vastly different than the situation that pro boxer Floyd Mayweather found himself in just a couple months ago. Mayweather was fighting to pay off a substantial IRS debt that he had accumulated, while Barry is fighting for the food and the rent. It really shows the gulf that exists between the worlds of professional boxing and MMA fighting.

Barry admits to getting by feasting on a diet of ketchup and rice. Now I don’t have to tell you that no trainer would recommend that as the kind of diet to be following going into a fight. Barry didn’t even bother to tell his trainer about what was going on in his personal life. He says that the reason he didn’t tell him was because he didn’t want anyone questioning his motivation heading into the fight.

Barry also refused to ask anyone for money. As you can imagine MMA fighters are a prideful bunch and Barry felt that the financial troubles were of his own making and thus he had to solve them himself.

“I could ask someone but then at the same time, how hard are you going to work for something if every time you get in trouble somebody catches you? I did something to put myself in this position I have to work my way out of it.”

That’s kind of an enlightening attitude to have in this times. I think that our world would be a much better place if more people had that kind of attitude rather than looking for a handout from somebody else. Now I’m not saying that by any means nobody deserves any help, but I think the people that are truly in need of help suffer a bit from the people that simply don’t want to help themselves.

Barry did manage to win the fight over Hardonk and did so in spectacular fashion. For that he won both the fight of the night bonus as well as the knockout of the night bonus. For that he took home a $120,000 from UFC president Dana White. Not that much money compared with what a lot of athletes in other sports make, but to someone in Barry’s situation it meant the world. Really an incredible feat for someone who faced eviction and barely had enough to eat.

When Barry’s check finally arrived he was ecstatic. Unfortunately when he went to deposit it he found that his truck wouldn’t even start. Obviously not one to be easily deterred, Barry got a jump and made his way over to the bank. There he was treated a little skeptically by the staff.

“I go to the bank, I’m sweaty, I’ve got the black eye, I haven’t shaven in two days, I’m strung out because I haven’t slept, I have green circles under my eyes so I’m like ‘Can I have a deposit slip mam?’. She gives it to me, I fill it out hand it to her. She looks at the deposit slip, then the check, then looks at me and says ‘Excuse me I’ll be right back.’ Then a manager comes out, a guy in a suit and says ‘What seems to be the problem?’ I was like ‘Well I have a black eye, that’s the only problem I know this looks really ridiculous.’ So he asks me for my ID, I hand him my license an he’s like ‘Your license says Pat Barry, but this check was written to Patrick Barry.’ So I decided to be funny and tell him Pat Barry is in my trunk right now. He didn’t laugh. So I told him take your time man do whatever you need to do because I have no where to go and my truck probably wont start when I go outside so you can just do whatever you need to do. An hour later he came back and everything was fine, the check was in my bank account.”

Despite the treatment at the bank, which can be described as anything from rude to at the very least inconsiderate, I think that Barry’s story is an incredible one. It can provide hope to people that find themselves in a similar situation. With a little moxy and a whole lot of hard work, good things can happen.

The key thing to remember is that no matter how bad things get to keep your head up and try to keep moving forward. A defeatist attitude can only lead to defeat. Now I know that not everyone is blessed to have the type of profession that can lead to a big payday like the one Pat Barry got, but I think the lessons learned from his story can be applied to everyone and their dealings with the economic recession. Just because the time’s are dark, don’t lose sight of the fact that there might be light just around the next corner. Good things can happen and they do to people each and every day. So keep your hope up America, we will see this thing through.