After an exhilarating run in the UFC heavyweight division, which included two Fights of the Night and two Knockouts of the Night awards, Pat ‘HD’ Barry (16-5-1, 10 KO’s) recently elected to return to his roots and the sport of kickboxing.
Barry’s popularity with fans has always stemmed from two things: his likeable personality, and his fearsome striking ability.
His dynamic kicking and punching has thrilled audiences around the world, and this weekend, live on SPIKE TV, he brings it to Denver via a spot on the GLORY 16 DENVER main card.
The four fighters taking part in the Heavyweight Contender Tournament are all proven knockout artists. Sergey Kharitonov (5-3, 3 KO’s), Errol Zimmerman (101-11-1, 42 KO’s), ‘Banging’ Ben Edwards (36-9-3, 32 KO’s) and Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva (37-10-1, 24 KO’s) have cumulatively dispatched a huge number of opponents.
Whichever two fighters do face off in the final, whether Barry is one of them or not, the odds of a brutal finish are very, very high. GLORY fighters in general tend to put their opponents away and that is especially true of the heavyweights.
Also on this weekend’s card is a welterweight title fight. Two technicians are contesting the vacant belt and it could go either way. Marc De Bonte (86-11-1, 28 KO’s) is a Muay Thai fighter with a high finish rate, while Karapet Karapetyan (43-9-2, 4 KO’s) is a high-speed grinder who tends to rack up points with quick combinations.
The pair is closely matched and the win will come down to whoever is able to impose their game on the other. The victor won’t have too much time to enjoy his belt though - Canada’s Joe Valtellini and world-ranked #1 Nieky Holzken are both ready to challenge the winner as soon as he lays his hands on the belt.
