That loss followed losses to Joe Schilling (GLORY 17) and Jason Wilnis (GLORY 18) and left Barrett feeling down. But ahead of tomorrow night’s fight he seems in great spirits and ready to throw down with the Denver brawler.
“I am excited. I went through a time of being very down, depressed, confused about where my career was going. But I have to look at myself and say look, you’ve had seven fights and you’re fighting guys with over 40 fights, guys who are world champions, guys like Joe Schilling, Simon Marcus and Jason Wilnis,” he reflects.
“These guys are all established fighters. I am in there with these guys and even though I had some losses, I am not being dominated and I have never been knocked out. When I look back, I have never taken an easy fight. GLORY just calls me and tells me who I am fighting and that’s it. I have been through the whole woe-is-me phase but looking back I wouldn’t change a thing because what I have learned has been priceless.
“What you are going to see is the continual evolution of Wayne Barrett. I still have ambitions, I still want to be the champion. I took a break in the summer to heal injuries and to find myself and I think that break has helped me immensely. Regardless of what happens in Denver, I will continue to fight. I will be calling GLORY like, “I want to be on the next card”. If I quit, I am a fake, you know? And I am not a fake. That’s not me.”
Jacoby is a fighter who can relate to Barrett’s journey as he too has experienced the pleasures of being thrown to the wolves. Jacoby had the dubious good fortune of being matched with top competition as soon as he entered GLORY due to having earned his contract via wining an eight-man ‘Road to Glory’ tournament with three spectacular knockouts.
A run of losses to top-tier opposition spoiled Jacoby’s record but the former UFC fighter has worked doggedly on his kickboxing game and has replaced much of his rawness with technical polish. His core approach has not changed though; Jacoby comes to bang. Having won the GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS Middleweight Qualification Tournament with two stoppages, Jacoby is looking to keep his momentum going.
“I think it’s a good fight. He is a solid guy. He blocks a lot of stuff. It’s a tough fight. He is coming off back-to-back wins in the Las Vegas tournament and he is trying to get on track to go places. He is trying to get to the same place that I am,” Barrett says.
“In the tournament he did what he had to do… In that first round he was hurt, he got clocked first but then he used his long arms to throw that left hook and he was able to connect and stop [Ariel Sepulveda]. He is a big, strong guy, he hits hard.”
Since the loss to Simon Marcus, Barrett has given his training something of an overhaul. His first appearances in GLORY marked him out as a contender, none more so that the GLORY 12 NEW YORK win over Schilling.
But on increasing exposure to other top professional kickboxers, Barrett’s coaches began to tinker with his style. According to Barrett that reached its nadir with GLORY 18 and GLORY 20 as his training camps centered on a style he wasn’t particularly comfortable in.
“I still use the same coach that I worked with previously, Jason Strout. I am not trying to bounce around with coaches, but we are just trying to find what works and what doesn’t. The fight [with Simon Marcus] in Dubai was heart-breaking and it was close,” he says.
“Afterwards [me and Jason] understood each other a lot better. I was like ‘OK, I get that you’re trying to teach me a style which works for your other guys but it’s not the style for me.’ My style is the anti-stiff style, the kryptonite to the stiff style. So I think for that training camp I wasn’t really into the style that we were training and it wasn’t a good fight for me. But you have to go through these things, it’s all part of finding out who you are.”
Friday nights encounter with Jacoby promises to be a dogfight; GLORY matchmaker Cor Hemmers has singled it out as a contender for Fight of the Night honors.
“You have two fighters who are very skilled and have a lot of heart but they have had some tough results recently. They really, really do not want to lose this fight and it means they will give everything,” he says. “So it makes good conditions for a really exciting fight. I think both of them will be looking to finish and it could turn out to be the Fight of the Night.”