Ryan Barker interview

Summary

Ryan Barker is an amateur MMA fighter representing Ascension Athletics, he amassed a 5-1 record in the light heavyweight division in the Us and is fighting again in November we speak about his start in MMA, his social media content, European links and much more

Transcript (youtube_captions)

Okay, I'd like to welcome Ryan Barker. Ryan, I came across Ryan Barker uh online. He was giving out advice. I clicked into his profile. I like his advice. I clicked into his profile, messaged him, told him, and uh we kind of had a couple of chats back and forth and we decided we do an interview. So, thank you very much for your time. How are you? And and in terms of the social media, um what's the kind of reaction been? Because I I like even though you are an amateur fighter, you're talking real facts about the amateur game. um what's the kind of reception that you've got from people from amateur fighters because I see you followers all over the world now. >> Yeah. Uh well, thank you for having me on first of all all the way all the way across the globe. Uh but yeah, no, like it's I just try to speak the truth because I've heard from people from you know different parts of the US, Europe, other places. It's kind of the same thing. You see it everywhere. you know, bad matchups, bad promotions, bad just it's it can be run a lot better. Uh, and I think I want to shed light on these things and and in my comment sections, people tend to agree and they give me funny stories. I'm sure if you can go through any of my comments, there's just horror stories of of crazy things that you've seen at these these small shows. >> Yeah, there's a few like I know in Ireland where because a couple of years ago, unfortunately, there was a fighter who died in the cage. So just like in Ireland there's huge restrictions. It was just it was just trauma just trauma to the brain. It was actually Conor McGregor's teammate who Batman I they said it was lace up but however that's besides point. So we're we have to be super super tight on health and safety and stuff like that and one of the some of our guys go to different shows in maybe the UK or they don't have some of those things in place and it needs to be called out because I think if you're in the scene and you don't call it out you're then party to it. you know, the sort of way I think. And do do you have much shenanigans and kind of crazy stuff going on at shows within the US? >> I mean, I've [clears throat] my personal career, I've been I've been very fortunate that I've been with good promotions, with professionalgrade promotions. Um, so that's, you know, a big thanks to my coach and everyone who's helped, you know, get me on to shows. But on the flip side, my teammates, some of my teammates haven't been so lucky and they've been on these smaller kind of real ghetto shows. And so I've got to see with my own eyes how just insane it can be. And yeah, you know, you see people showing up 12 pounds overweight. You just see things that you can't even believe. Uh, you know, I I told a story one time and a small show maybe an hour and a half away from where I am. Like the kid's warming up and he's throwing like 360 uppercuts in the warm-up room and you're just like, where do these people come from? What? It's one of the funniest stories and and it's completely true. Uh, and the guy obviously got smoked, but you know, yeah, I I have been lucky to avoid it happening to me, but I' i've seen it uh on the kind of like going to corner or or just watching uh side of things. >> Yeah, that's crazy. One thing I would say is who is his coach? Who is letting that person go in with these [snorts] things? Because at the end of the day like see what I talked about obviously there was deter something like that sets the sport back if someone gets seriously hurt and we tried to self police it ourselves in the like the media and stuff will call it out if need be cuz look there there does be lopsided matchups everywhere but for someone to be doing that kind of behavior he he should definitely not be in a cage and that's more his coach giving him the confidence to to to be doing stuff like that but talk to us about you and and your career and how you started You're currently 5-1. Uh you're going to be going pro soon, I seen. Talk to us about what got you into MMA and what led you there and what led you to the gym you're in because I actually seen you done a real. We we'll come back to that on about the gym. But so why did you start when and what led you to the gym that you're current you're currently in if that was the one you started with? >> Yeah. So I mean I've been watching MMA for for a long time uh in my high school days. Uh and I played American football all the way up to the collegiate level. Uh and you know I had issues with that and I was kind of in this period where I was trying to figure out football whether I wanted to continue not continue um and in that time I wanted to stay fit you know so I wanted to keep training something even if it wasn't just lifting. So I looked up you know local MMA gyms and and I and I I had known about um the gym that I'm at now because people have wrestled there and they used to have a wrestling program. So, [snorts] yeah, I'm I'm fortunate enough that the first gym I ever walked into is still the gym that I'm with today. Uh, and I and I was met with, you know, great coaching and great teammates off the bat, which I know is not a very common experience for a lot of people. Um, but yeah, once I started training there, I basically said, "Fuck continuing playing football. I think I have, you know, the athleticism, the background in athletics to, you know, make something out of this and, you know, hopefully make some money and and and, you know, continue this and, uh, here we are a few years later and I did exactly that. >> That's mad that that cuz I I would, from what my understanding is, football pays a hell of a lot of money when you get into it and and MMA, not so much. So obviously you must did you fall in love with the sport or was it like what was it that made you go right I'm not going to do this I'm going to go full force with the MA like what what was it that switched or what was it that change your mind was it the competing like cuz when you were football team you're with teammates as well so if they let you down whereas with it's solo well it's not solo in MMA you've got your team but it's just you what made you made that switch to to go to MMA and and not go continue with the football >> I would say with with football it's It's it's very politics driven. Uh and and with Yeah, it's a team sport. If if this guy [ __ ] up now, it's your problem. And it's just really hard to climb that ladder uh to make it to the to the professional, like to the NFL. Obviously, if you play in the NFL, you're making a lot of money. But to get there is so hard and you have to have so much luck on your side versus MMA, it's a bit more black and white. Okay, I take fights. I win fights. I just keep climbing the ladder and then one day I can find myself on a bigger platform. And uh I don't know if there was exactly anything that made me want to do MMA more than just I love the sport and I just became obsessed with it especially after training uh and and and actually putting the skills uh you know onto the mat. >> Yeah. You know, a lot of people say that when they go in for their first session, people say about jiu-jitsu and they say, "You fall in love with it." They always say, "Dave, you should try it. It's the gentle art." As they say, in their neck brace and their leg brace, it's a gentle It's a gentle art of folding clothes with people inside the clothes, but um yeah. So, what was it like going for your obviously you said you played football, so you've been in kind of events and games and stuff like that, but what was it like for your first amateur fight like walking into the cage uh with the atmosphere and stuff like that? Was it nervous? What was going through your mind? What was your em what was your perceived emotions compared to the reality when you got in there? I mean I was like having a extensive highle background in football you know playing at high pressure you know you know busy stadiums you know at that level uh so I knew I kind of already had a routine that I I just used the routine that I used to do before football games and I kind of just brought it to MMA and it's really helped me. I I' I've shown up and I've performed every fight. Uh, I've never had kind of a where the lights were too bright and I couldn't perform. So, I would attribute that to football because I learned how to show up and and and fight or play the game, whatever. Uh, but the emotions obviously were a bit different because now we're not playing football, we're fighting each other. Um, but I was still confident and I knew that I knew that I was better than the guy I was fighting. All I had to do was just show up and fight and fight how I train and I'll be okay. So, we get in the cage. I look across the cage. I know for a fact he's a lot more nervous than I am. So, that gave me even more confidence. So, you know, I went out there and I I knocked him out in about a minute. >> Wow. Wow. So, you're not you're not paid by you're not paid as amateur at all. So, the quicker you get out and then obviously that looks better that looks better going on. But you've gone on you've competed a few times I believe. I want to say you have an 80% finishing rate. >> Mhm. >> 80% finishing rate on your fight so far and you're going to be going pro and like heavyweight. We spoke about this before we came on in all kind of aspects. It's quite a thin division. Are you finding it hard to find matchups that are to your level at the minute in the US even with the population that you have there? >> Yeah, for sure. Uh I mean I see the depth of competition that some of my teammates who fight at you know 55 125 have to go through and and that's not the case for me. Uh you know it only took me you know five wins and to already break into the top five in the whole country. Uh that's US and Canada. So that's an even even bigger pool uh of people. But it like the top 10 guys are just so far ahead of everybody else in the country for amateur. Like even my next my final amateur fight is November 21st. Um and I'm fighting a guy who's 5-0 and I believe he's ranked number eight. And without you know fully [ __ ] on him, I think our gap in skill is that of a professional versus a low-level amateur. And I intend to go show why that's the case November 21st. And I think a lot of people will have their eyes open to the actual skill gap that there is at light heavyweight. >> Yeah, it it sounds like, like I said, there's either people that so much experience and they're up here and then it's like a transitional period where all these guys are going to be going pro. You've kind of got a weird space in the middle where people can't get matched because they've either fought each other, the guys down here are too low for them, and the guys up here are too high for them. That happens in a couple of divisions, dare I say it, without getting shot. The women's division is one of those divisions as well. Like, and that's not in a disrespectful way. There's some great female fighters, but I find when I'm trying to match, if you go to Tapology, they don't even have them sorted out into into >> way categories or professional or amateur for the females, which is is wild to me. So, you're just looking going, are they pro, are they not? But, um, when your fight is, where is your fight? We spoke about you've traveled a bit, and I think that's essential. Is that something you actively sought for? Was the travel when fighting because that is going to be what's happening when you do go pro. >> Yeah, me and my coach have obviously because of the skill gap that exists at light heavyweight, you have to be willing to travel or else you're not going to be able to find competitive matchups. Uh so it's kind of your only option. And you know, I think I'm glad I did it. You know, I've you know, cut weight traveling. of like you said, water loading while being on a plane, figuring that out, figuring out, you know, finding a sauna to do your actual weight cut is is not easy when you don't know where you are. Uh, so these things are crucial for your pro career. Um, but my next fight is is decently local. It's about 4 hours from from where I'm at now. Uh, it should be it's a it's a bit of a smaller show, so, you know, hopefully I don't fall victim to what I talk [ __ ] about. Uh, and if I do, I will be I will let it be known. And uh, but yeah, no, I I think because the guy I'm fighting has only ever fought in his home state, you know, he's only he's never traveled. He's never branched out to take hard fights. So that's like that's a hypocrisy I'm trying to call out. He has a 5-0 record, but what does that record mean when I go on your tapology and I just see local people who have losing records? So I'm just unimpressed. Yeah. Know, and I get that. And I know a lot of people will say because because we've [ __ ] someone was saying they wanted to fight a certain person. And I was like, "No, you're like one and0, he's zero and three. I want I want to get him a fight that he's going to potentially win." There's another lad who's one and three and go, "Okay, I'd rather match them together than uh than you and him." And so you build off off him. Do you know the sort of way? Um, does that happen a lot in America uh in the US that there's like lopsided like do a lot of people like try cuz you said this before billion like if you turn out with a 10 and 10 amateur career when you go pro the only person that's going to know about that amateur record is you and maybe some people close to you no one cares. Um, >> yeah. >> Whereas do you think that's an issue that people need to just like obviously not like a debut versus a 10 and0 guy, but if you're fairly similar is that that's people are trying to build I don't understand building amateur careers. I don't know if you could even explain why would why would someone want to build an amateur career and go unbeaten because it serves you no benefit and you see when they go pro it they get found out. Is that something that happens a lot is lopsided fights to build an amateur career in the US? >> Uh, I would say yeah because for multiple reasons. A people don't like to lose. So if you know you're entering a fight that you're 90% likely to win versus a fight that's 50/50, most people take the easy way out and will take that 90% chance to win. Uh so that's one factor. A second factor is people don't like getting outside their comfort zone. So to go travel to face a hard opponent, yeah, it's scary. It's intimidating. It's it brings a lot of extra emotions. And if you don't have a certain mindset, I can understand why people would be like, "No, I'm not going to do that. Just keep feeding me people that I know I can beat." But like you said, it serves you no good. It doesn't help build the sport. And in fact, like in my area, I find that the even worse lopsided fights are at the lower pro level. Uh so amateur is what it is. It's not so it's it's pretty bad, but it's not terrible. It's when you get to that low regional professional where you see 3 and 0 guys fighting people who are two and 17. Like it is absurd. And that's the level at least in my region where you see that is just they're promoting main event fights where the guy's a 26-year-old prospect 5-0 fighting a 43y old with a 5 and2 record. I I Yeah, that's the [ __ ] that really pisses me off. >> Yeah, I get that. We You don't see that huge amount. Like I said, when that guy came to me and he wanted to fight someone, I was like, "No, I'd rather put on competitive fights, but the problem is at a regional level when you get two prospects because we have I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cage Warriors in Yeah. So, they've been taking people on their debuts are one and0, two and0 now." So, the problem is now >> you don't The two big prospects are would rather that fight on Cage Warriors, which is understandable. Um, but there's a show here called Elite FC. >> They're going to have 10 pro fights. I've never seen anything like it. its own. I'm going to send you the link. I'll buy you the link and you can watch this show. Um, but I think lower level pro yet because it doesn't serve you anything. I've seen someone who fought people who were not anywhere near his level. He went 3 and 0 and then he faces someone who's a monster and you find out very quickly. Do you know the sort of way and and then what do you do when the loss is on your like but then what you do? You can't go backwards. You have to keep going forwards. Um, [snorts] but there was another thing you spoke about which I found interesting was MMA gyms. When you went to your MMA gym, because I I completely agree with you if made sure there's a fight team that they're active, stuff like that. Did you do all that research yourself or did you just go into the gym and get lucky and then talk about it after or did you do the research going in? >> Um, I kind of did the research because I had followed them on social media for a while. So, obviously if a gym's active, they post about it. you know, they post people fighting over the weekend, you know, how they did kickboxing, MMA, jiu-jitsu. Uh, so I knew that it was a competitive gym that had people constantly, you know, fighting. Uh, so I did do the due diligence there. Um, but obviously for me, you have to do a little bit different research because if a gym could have a lot of killers, but if they don't have any 205ers, heavyweights, that doesn't serve me well. >> Yeah. Um, so I knew that they had, you know, two or three guys who were active at light heavyweight in middleweight. So I knew I had I had teammates uh going forward. So yeah, I I did I did that research for myself uh before before fully committing. >> Yeah, cuz cuz there is a lot of gyms that are opening up and and I know teams obviously have to build, but if you're like if you want to go full in, you need to make sure you're going to the right gym. But we spoke, you've obviously European heritage and European background and you were looking, you were talking about maybe you've been over to Ireland, you're coming over to Europe to train, I believe, before your pro debut and you were looking to kind of break into maybe a European scene and maybe have fights here. What has brought that? Because obviously a lot of people from here want to go to the US whereas you're you're doing the reverse. What what's is that is that because of your family ties and stuff like that or you you tell me? Well, partly, yeah, family, obviously family stuff, uh, plays a role. Uh, you know, uh, obviously both sides of my family have European roots, you know, from Lithuania and then there's a French flag in front of me. So, uh, both sides, uh, have European uh, roots there. And I just really enjoy my time on the continent. I think I've been to Europe like five, six times now, just vacationing and in sightseeing and tourism. Not exactly there, you know, to train or to fight. Uh, but I just love being uh on the continent. And so if I could, you know, break into a market that not a lot of American fighters even try to break into, frankly, uh, I think about it like MMA is a global sport, so why not try to break into a global market instead of just kind of being tailored to just the American fan base? Um, and at the end of the day, uh, I want I would like to live in Europe, uh, you know, when my MMA days are over. You know, I where exactly I haven't found yet. Um, but that's the beauty in it. There's so many different places, uh, to live on on the continent. So, yeah, I think breaking into a European fan base would serve me well in in a lot of ways. >> Yeah. And like that as well people think oh it is American but if you look there's a show FCC which is it would be a regional UK show but it's on fight pass a lot of their champions summer only a female fighter who started at the age of 30 I want to say she's 30 now she's fighting tonight on Dana White series yeah >> so like there is scope there's some good promotions in Amsterdam LFL you've got Octagon I think people talk about cage for me octagon you've seen it you seen the clip from Mario the other 60,000 in a stadium is crazy work. Is that the kind of atmosphere you'd like to compete in? And because in Eastern Europe especially, Czech Republic, Germany, you're treated like athletes. It's a family day out whereas in Ireland it's a load of drunk people go watch it. Do you know the sort of way whereas it's more of a sport? Is is it you want to have those experiences in those stadium shows and stuff? Is that something that you're looking forward to? Because I know UFC do big shows but they don't do stadium shows the as much as Octagon might have. Yeah, I think for me my best performances are when the, you know, lights are the brightest. So, the biggest, loudest crowds and and I I'll be completely honest, the crowds in Europe are way better than the crowds in the US. Uh, every time the they do UFC Paris, that has to be one of the craziest crowds. Uh, the UFC Bgrade card, uh, that crowd was also insane. Uh, actually, I've been to Belgrade as well. It's a it's a it's a it's a lovely city. uh nice people. But yeah, I think the bigger experience is what I want. So that when you get to the UFC, you've seen these bright lights, you know, whether it's for Octagon, for KSW in Poland, that they put on a big show. Uh you know, Cage Warriors, they put on a big show. There's just a lot of a lot of good promotions that that yeah, do stadiums and do these huge shows that fill out with with a with a crazy crowd. And that's the kind of environment where, you know, if you've gone through that, if you if you start your uh UFC career on, you know, on a fight night card, it's it's nothing shocking to you. >> Yeah, it seems like that. You've spoke about obviously the football and being under the bright lights and you I what I like from speaking to you is you're actively seeking challenges, seeking to go outside your comfort zone and especially the fact that you want to go into Europe and you said [clears throat] you wanted to travel you're going to be going traveling obviously after this is your last amateur fight then it's going to be pro. And how long are you planning on traveling? Do you have it mapped out already? What countries you want to visit? Where what's what's your plan? I think for me [clears throat] if everything goes goes according to plan, you know, I get the I get the win November 21st, put a nice cap on my amateur career and uh take a little bit of time uh in between, you know, making my pro debut and finishing my amateur career to, you know, not only just travel just to get more experiences and and it's something I enjoy uh but to yeah, visit a few gyms in Europe and and and get a little bit of a different perspective and do do a little cross training in the meantime. So MT23 gym in Vienna. Uh I had talked to them and you know they had they had some highle light heavyweights come through there. You know Alexander Rockic uh Ebo Oslon. So uh definitely a good gym uh to go to go do a little cross trainining especially if I'm already going to be on the continent. Uh obviously Allstars in Sweden you know with Andreas Michael and you know Gusto Sid and the whole thing. Uh, and besides that, I mean, there's gyms all over that I'd love to check out. Obviously, it's going to be hard to get everywhere. Uh, you know, NextGen in Liverpool would be a cool gym to go train at. Uh, there's just a lot of spots in Europe and and hopefully over the course of my career, I can kind of, you know, train a little bit everywhere and and learn and learn a lot. No, I I like that the fact you're going and cross training and I think you see it in in Ireland where a lot of the smaller gyms cross like because you were saying about not having bodies maybe in certain gyms and I don't want to say smaller gyms but they might not have the numbers of your FAI which Paul Hughes comes from or or SBG have have massive numbers. So these gyms have kind of congregated together and and done that. And I like the fact that you're willing to travel go out of your comfort zone and do that. and I think it will stand you in the future. The fact that you're looking for these challenges. If you are going to be in Ireland and you need any any contacts or anything, hit me up. UK not so much, but I still know some people as well. But I'm going to let you go. I've really enjoy or is there anything else where you want to talk about before I I let you go. >> Um I mean just just to piggyback off what you said, like you have to seek things that like make you nervous. So, is is walking out, you know, in front of a 60,000 person crowd in in a country that you're not from intimidating? Sure. Is is it one hell of a is it one hell of a way to build your career? You go out there, put on a great performance, now there's 60,000 people that now know your name and, you know, helps build you up. So, if if you can get out of your comfort zone, it'll pay it'll pay off so much more than you can you can ever uh think. And I think that's what I'm seeking. Like you said, every time I try to do something, I try to make it bigger than the last. >> Yeah. No, and I I like I said, I love your content. I know loads of people who interact with it. Is [snorts] there any one piece of advice for someone that's starting MMA other than the gym? Because we've already covered. Is there one piece of advice you'd give them? Because a lot of people are quite hesitant. They think, "Oh, it's just meattheads and it's killers and it's this." When you go in there, it's the complete opposite. 99.9% of the people are probably the nicest people. Um, if you could give someone go to if they were on the fence about going to MMA, what advice would you give them to kind of push them in that direction? >> Like you said, I mean, on top of actually going into the gym and seeing how awesome everybody is, the skills that you gain, you know, in, you know, self-defense obviously if if you don't want to fight. Uh, but if you do want to fight, it's a you can make a professional career out of something that people take up as a hobby. There's a lot of sports on this planet that you can make a full-time job out of just training it. You know what I mean? It's the the barrier to entry is pretty low. So, [ __ ] it. What's the worst that happens? You know, you try. I I think I think I think the biggest thing is just go for it. You know what I mean? >> Yeah. I think sometimes the fear of something happening is actually worse than it happening. Like, so if someone goes, I'm going to punch you in the face. I'm going to be more anxious than actually just if he just punched me in the face, you know? Exactly. >> I think sometimes you just need to go and do it. But look, I've really enjoyed this conversation. I'll be looking out for your fight on the 21st of November, I believe you said it was. And we will will be be in contact. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. >> Yes. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.