Saturday May 3, Bloody Elbow presents fight coverage of Glory 16 Denver. Glory 16 airs live on Spike TV, Saturday night at 9:00 p.m. ET. We will have live fight night coverage and discussion right here. Here, we break down the Glory 16 card in our fight by fight preview.
PAT BARRY (15-5-1) vs. ZACK MWEKASSA (10-1)
For a lot of fans, this is perhaps the reason to watch Glory 16. Because Pat Barry. The former UFC Heavyweight makes his Glory debut here after retiring from MMA and taking one tune-up kickboxing fight earlier this year. Barry grew a legion of fans during his UFC run thanks to both his exciting style and goofy personality, and now Glory is banking on those fans making the jump over to kickboxing. His opponent here is pretty inexperienced in kickboxing, and that’s fine. This is Barry’s 2nd kickboxing fight since 2007 – if you thought he was just going to jump in there against Daniel Ghita you are sorely mistaken.
The lack of recent experience from both men makes this an incredibly tough fight to preview. Barry’s kickboxing career took place in the mid-2000’s, where he was a semi-regular on K-1’s US shows. He had some good wins in there against Gary Goodridge and Rickard Nordstrand, but he was not a remarkable fighter by any means – his UFC career is a far bigger accomplishment overall. In 2008, Barry also fought in the criminally underrated Chuck Norris World Combat League – a very fun show where Barry had success. He then walked away from kickboxing for his UFC run. Earlier this year, he returned to the kickboxing ring, defeating Ed Burris by KO. You can watch that fight below.
More Glory 16 Fight Previews:
Mwekassa is a professional boxer with a boxing record of 14-4 with 13 KOs. All but two of his boxing matches have taken place in South Africa, and he is still an active boxer, coming in off a boxing loss in November. Glory has him listed as 10-1 in kickboxing, but kickboxing records are tough to validate, and in all honesty, I have never seen a single kickboxing fight of his, which makes him tough to scout.
Looking at this fight, when you see Pat Barry vs. a boxer, you see a pretty clear path to a Barry win and it’s spelled LEG KICKS. Barry’s tree trunk legs are massive and he throws brutal leg kicks. Against a boxer who will in all likelihood not check the kicks or fire back his own, Barry could do some serious damage. Mwekassa can also be a bit chinny, so Barry could find success with his hands as well. The only hesitation I have is that in his return fight, Barry looked pretty sloppy in places. His head was low, he was frequently off balance, and he had some gaps in his defense. If he barrels in head down against Mwekassa as he did against Burris, the pro boxer could land a heavy shot and drop HD. I don’t think that’s how this one will go – but Mwekassa absolutely has the tools to spoil this return.
Prediction: Pat Barry by KO
Fight Video: Barry vs. Burris
Mwekassa vs. Kizito Ruhamya
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