Andrew "the king of hell" Barrett interview

Ringkasan

Andrew Barrett makes his professional debut this weekend on Clanwars, we speak about his time away from fighting leading his own gym, his. Progression since we've last seen him and his opponent this weekend

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Okay, so I'm here with Andrew, the king of hell, Barrett, which I love. I love I remember doing an MMA in depth with him and just some of the quotes we got off it were unbelievable. It's been a long time since we've seen him in action. He's got his own gym now. He's had a lot of pro fights fall out. Uh I was wondering was this ever going to come around and finally has. Roger Lopez has stepped up to the mark and you two will be the main event this weekend. So, thank you very much for joining me. How are you doing? How does it feel to finally be getting this pro debut off the mark? >> I feel like on top of the world, honestly. Like on top of the world. Um it's it's like it's like something you dream of when you're a kid that you're going to have your pro debut and you think it's like miles away from you. It's far away from you. But it almost like in a blink suddenly you're there. You're, you know, you're a day away from making it. Um, and I'm excited to make that like special moment. I'm going to have a lot of, uh, my team from both teams and a lot of my family up there. And I'm really looking forward to making a special day. >> And it is going to be a special day. I unfortunately I won't be there, but I will be watching on pay-per-view. Uh, I think Clan Wars have put a really good card together. Um, obviously I believe from what I can see from topology, it looks like you're the main event. Is that confirmed that you're the main event? >> I I think if I was to guess by the way the cards lined up, I'm probably the co-main. I don't want to make any assumptions there, but I would say I'm the co-main probably because of Kelly. Um, you know, obviously him fighting on PFL and stuff like that. I'd say that's probably um but if you go over if you go over and you check uh who's who who what what fight people are most excited for um it's definitely going to be me and Lopez. >> Yeah. No, so that must have been because I looked at the typology and they actually usually have it in the order. So obviously I need to go to Clan Wars and check. So that's my bad. Not enough research done by Dave today, but sure look we live and we learn. Um it's fight week. Is there obviously you talked about it being a special day and a special moment. It's fight week for you. It's very close to the day. So, I do really appreciate your time. How does this week feel any different than than any other one? Cuz you always trained and prepared yourself as a professional, especially towards the end of your amateur career. You've had some massive victories uh against boys that were very good the likes of the boys from Phantom, which who were running through lads and you were able to put a stop to their streaks. you were fighting kind of like professional then and preparing like professional. So, is it just kind of an easy transition into the pro kind of fight week or has there been many differences or or difficulties that you've come across? >> Um, I don't think so. I think like at the end of the day, like a fight's a fight, I think like people put too much like weight on fighting pro. I get like the extra time, but at the end of the day, I fought in the nationals. I fought three days in a row. Like, there's no singular fight that's going to be harder or more difficult than fighting Alex Vagan and Solomon and and Frank all one after another. That's not pro is not going to be harder than that. Um there's there's uh what is it? There's eight more minutes uh fighting in that uh than there is in the pro rank. So, um this is just this is just another fight like any other. Um uh I just prepare the best I can. Um whatever has happened has already happened. Um uh and I just get to sit back and enjoy the experience. >> And with obviously you've got the the added time like you said and you named a couple of people that you fought as well. um with he had a time and I'm just going to relate to one of the people before Solomon Simon obviously that's where the the the king of hell statement came from when you look at his transition to pro um Solomon Simon I don't want to say he had a good record at amateur but he won a lot and he lost a lot as well but when he went to pro you can see those extra minutes suit him do you think it'll be the same for you at pro that the extra minutes and the extra limbs you can use with the elbows and the knees will suit you more so than amateur did >> Oh yeah 100% like at the end of the day. Um, everybody knows what I'm going to go in and do in there. When I step in the cage from the bell ringing to the to the other side, it is all out action. If you give me more time, just gives me more time to break someone down. Um, uh, sometimes I felt in fights where they've gone to the decision, it felt like I was just at that point where I was breaking someone. Uh, and if I had that extra two, three minutes on top of everything, I would have been able to finish the fight. Um, uh, the longer time inside the rounds as well suits someone who, um, has like very good like dominant grappling positions. Um, because we have that more time to work uh, once it hits the floor. Uh, more time for ground and pound, just more time for action. Um, so I think the pro rules suit me more than uh more than anybody that's gone pro recently in Ireland. >> No, 100%. And like we've talked about, we're not going to go too deep into Yam career, but like we said, there was the big wins like Solomon, the the Bison Phantom, there's so many big wins there. >> When you went through amateur, we talked about just before we came on, you would fight the best people that there was potentially because going into pro, you want to be well prepared. Do you feel that the people that you fought are amateur? Not that will make it easy going into the pro, but like I said, it's not going to be harder than what you've had to fight before because we've seen a lot of Irish lads go in against people from other countries and they might be one and0 as pro, two and0 as pro, but they don't have the extensive amateur careers that we do here like say yourself, Gary Rooney, Alex Sullivan. Do you think that prepares yourself and the Irish fighters >> better going into a to a pro situation? >> Yeah. Um 100%. I think um when you think about the styles that I have fought, who have I not fought? Do you know? Not the people, not the names. Like I fought the strikers, I fought the wrestlers, I fought the, you know, the Charles Olivera types that are like lethal on the feet, but then will catch you with a guillotine on the way down. I fought every style there is. I know what it feels like to tweak my game to adjust to individuals. Um uh so I think the extensive amateur career um is it's just given me that calm that peace that like you know someone asked me if I was worried this week and you know before I would have said I am worried like you know and I'm very open person I like to say if I'm worried I'm worried um but I wasn't and not because I'm believe I'm going to tear through the person that I'm in front of. is because um this is like what I came here to do. I came here to fight and enjoy the experience. I don't want to rush to it. I don't want to get to it quicker. Um I want to savor every minute of the cut. I want to savor every minute of the training and I want to savor every 15 minutes inside that cage. I love talking to you and I I love your attitude and I love your answers because the way you explain them and articulate them and put them out there and I love that you're honest because you always want to give because it's important for me that young inspiring fighters to come up that might be look up to you as an inspiration that you give them the full the good bad and the ugly of whatever it is because it's not all glamour and this people look at Conor McGregor and what he's done he's an outlier he's a unicorn there'll never be someone like him but they think it's all full of money it's this it's No, it's full of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears not seeing your family and a lot of it and and that's what I like that you portray out there as well. But you've got Roger this weekend. Roger's obviously he joined SPG. Have you done much uh looking into him or would you leave that to your coaches? >> Um, no. I love researching my opponents. I think it's like all part of the game, you know? I know it freaks some people out like it gets in their head a little bit too much. Um uh but it doesn't get in my head. It's never got in my head. Um one of my favorite things to do is break down a fighter. Um uh even with fights that I've my opponents have pulled out, I have breakdowns on people in this country that I was possibly going to fight. Um uh I have multiple phases. is I have details of their first favorite move, their second favorite move, their third favorite move. Um uh and Kieran usually asks me to send it on to him so that we can sync up um what way we're both thinking. Um and uh you should have seen the game plan I gave him uh there a few weeks ago. Um I think he was even blown away by uh how detailed it was, how precise it was. Um, and uh, it's it's so fun to prepare for different styles like that. And I feel like if I didn't game plan for an opponent, I would be taking away half the fun for myself. like that you said it freaks out some people and that's obviously we're going to get onto your gym in a second but obviously what makes you a good coach the fact that Kieran Davvern one of the legends in Irish MMA uh was blown away by your game plan that you prepared for yourself cuz that shows one a huge amount of maturity and two a lot of self-awareness about your skills and where you can defeat this person and then obviously I know you you you're going to look at where maybe he can get the advantage on you and how to stop that as well because I know you don't just look at what you're good you look at maybe where he might be better than you at certain things and take it as a whole because I find you so self-aware about just you your surroundings your positives your negatives the good bad and the ugly one of the things which is which could be throw fireworks in the air for me is because you haven't fought for a while and he hasn't fought for a while like from the last foot tape of of both could be I'm not going to say completely different fighters but do you think there might be things that he might have seen in your last fight couple fights that he might be expecting that might not happen. And and are you expecting him him to be much different from his last fight? Um obviously I don't want to give away too many secrets. I got I got um more than a few skill sets um prepared and ready to go. Um Kieran is the one that's seeing them and uh I think Kieran again can like hardly believe them. Um, and these are systems that are working against um, my teammates that are are seeing me day in day out. Like they have time to adjust to it. Um, they have specific responses to my techniques that nobody's going to do inside the cage. Nobody is. Um, not on first the first time they fight me or the second time they fight me or the third time they fight me. um they'd have to fight me eight times in a row before they'd start figuring out how to make adjustments um uh to some of my tactics. As far as Lopez, um I think personally um and I don't mean this to say it's a negative towards Lopez, I don't think Lopez is someone that adapts particularly well. I think he's a very hard worker. I think he's very disciplined. I think he puts his nose to the ground and he works like a dog. Um, but running in the wrong direction uh is still going to get you nowhere no matter how fast you run. Um, and I feel like a lot of fighters are are cookie cutter. They're, you know, they're generic. They're like they're they're picking techniques from uh what is standard. They're uh such and such guy. I identify as uh this fighter. Um I'm Andrew Barrett and I'm going to be nothing else in there. Um I don't have a style attached to me other than the style that the King's Core Academy uh leads. Um, and you'll see that on the night. >> Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this cuz I talked to Roger himself and and he seems very excited for this fight. You seem so excited. I was excited already, but talking to you, this is why I love doing the interviews has made me more invested and saying I'm watching this fight. I can't wait to see obviously yourself returning and see how Roger fares. Obviously, since he's he's he used to be by himself and now he's with SPG, what he's like with with coaches behind him. So, it's going to be a great great night. But we're going to talk just a little bit about the King's Core Academy. How is that going? How were you able to manage that and training for the pro debut? Obviously, cuz I I don't need to ask you because I know kind of know what you're going to answer, your discipline, your preparation and everything. But how have you found it like coaching and then getting ready for this pro debut? To be honest, I feel like this camp in particular, I have got the chance to reap the rewards of my hard work. Um, before when I was fighting in, uh, in your um, I didn't get a chance to work with my own students. Now my students are starting to come up and there's some names in that room that you will be interviewing in not so distant future. Um and I am getting a chance to work with those people. And not only that to get ready for this fight, but those guys um the sacrifices they've made to get me ready for this fight has been incredible. Um, do you know a lot of them change their entire style just to move like Lopez? Um, just so that I can get those looks that another person wouldn't. And that means that they lose sparring matches because they're sparring in a way that they shouldn't be sparring. They're not sparring naturally the way they like to spar. Um, but they're willing to make that sacrifice for me because I am always willing to make that sacrifice for them. And and because we when we spoke that it was a long time ago now it was kind of just that you'd set up and I wanted to talk to you about the King's Court Academy and what was and I remember one stage you were saying you weren't too sure if you were going to go not that you were you weren't too sure when it was going to be because you enjoying the coaching you said you actually you the way you talk to the coaching you enjoyed being able to be part of a person's growth and be part of a person's discipline and a place to go when they've had a bad day. How is that now? Obviously, it's about probably How long is case? How long's open now? About two years. >> About two years. We had a two-year celebration there. I'd say about two months ago. Um, so just over two years. >> And how are you feeling about it now? Obviously, you've got the pro debut coming up. So, obviously, you've you've been back to fighting. We've talked that you've been trying to get matched. Like, >> how how have you felt? Like you said, you said there's gonna be names are gonna be interviewing. We talked off camera about uh some of the fighters that you have, but how is that feeling two years on? How fulfilling has coaching there been for Andrew Barrett? >> Um there's there's been loads of struggles. There's been loads of hardships um in between it. Um, a lot of people see struggling as as uh as like something that's getting in the way, but I I think that's only um every great story has struggle. Um, and when the King's Court is is open five years, 10 years, um, a lot of the students that are with me now are going to be telling stories about what we went through to build our team the right way. uh uh to get to the place that we are then. Um for me, it's just it's been going to strength to strength. We got um a new facility that we're working out of. We got more mats, um more math space, more members. We opened a kids class. Just recently in the last two weeks, we opened um a women's self-defense class, which I'm really happy um to uh be investing and put my time into um because a lot of I see especially because how much martial arts has affected me, I see how much it's affected me and I want it to affect um all these people the same way. Um, uh, I think it's so important for kids, for them to realize just how strong they are and to to be in a safe, playful environment where they can learn all these skills and then they can have that confidence that they're not pushed over, that they're not um, that they're willing to make those big moves in their life that might have nothing to do with martial arts. Um, and the same for the women. I'm work working with a lot of the women at the moment. um where uh they're telling me maybe situations that they feel like um they might be in that could be threatening that they could be afraid of um and I'm working with them to deise plans and and techniques that I can teach them back um to help them grow. And I'm really happy that the gym has been there for someone that's 64 and someone that's four. Um uh it's like, you know, it really is a a a family gym. Um it it I have like vicious fighters and then I have little kids. Um, it's like we're training we're training the full spectrum of people. Um, and and all of the people that are in those classes still finding a way to interact with each other, learn from each other, grow from each other, um, and get better together. Um, and, uh, and I always envision that. It's just so beautiful to see it come through. Yeah, it must be a surreal feeling and like I said a fulfilling feeling because it is good when you do stuff for yourself but like I've done stuff for other people and I seen them achieve stuff with the help that I've given them and I felt more proud of myself then than if I done it myself if you get me and it's a weird feeling but I think it's the fact that you know if you do it yourself you put but the fact that you were able to help someone achieve some I think and they had the trust in you and you were able to fulfill that trust for them and put them there I saw so I can understand completely where you're coming from. Mine was on the smaller scale. Yours is obviously on the bigger scale with the gym. I want to be wish you the best of luck with the gym and going forward. Like I said, we'll have a chat after the fight if you've uh about fighters that are my interview and I'm also matching for a show as well. I'm not sure how many fights we have left, but I think there's one or two novice people we might need to get matched. So, I'll talk to you after your own fight. Uh anyways, cuz we'll just let you prepare for that. But I'm going to let you go cuz it is close to fight and I want you to go back to whatever you're doing and need to get done. Is there anything you want to say before you go or anyone want to shout out? Thank you so much for your time. It's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you again and it's going to be a pleasure to watch you again this weekend. >> Well, thanks so much. Um, you've been a part of my like fighting career the whole way through. Um, h and I feel like fight wouldn't be complete without getting an interview in with you. Um, uh, for as far as people I want to thank, I want to thank everybody at the King's Court that's been there for me, that's been training me, that's been helping me grow. Um, I want to thank, uh, everybody at Air Grappling that's been, you know, putting me through the grind when I need those hard rounds, uh, and I need that extra push. Um, I want to thank my girlfriend Jess who's been like I couldn't put into words how much um she's helped in my preparation. Um, and I want to I want to thank um uh particularly I want to thank um Dra, I want to thank Christian and I want to thank um Bernardess um my mother. I want to thank those three people because I think those three are um like unsung heroes. Um they're the people that are going to be such a big part of this win um and this and preparing me for this fight. Um but their name won't go up in lights. Um uh the same way you know nobody I not that I wouldn't thank him but people know Ronin was part of my team. you know, people know that Kieran was part of my team. Um, those people will get those mentions, but I think those three people in particular, um, uh, have been drilling with me, preparing with me, talking me through stuff, making little adjustments. Um, and, uh, they're going to be so much of the success I get on Saturday nights. >> Perfect. It was absolutely fantastic chatting to you again and I really appreciate the words that you said to me there. That's made me a little bit feel a little bit sppy myself that it means so much to you to be on the show coming up to it because I like yourself been a part of so many fighters careers and I just love seeing this transition to pro and whether you win lose or draw you know yourself whether you've won a fight or lost a fight I probably haven't been around when you've lost many but I've always sent you the message after you know in a sort of way how are you doing how are you um because there so it's just because you were one of the first people I interviewed coming in there all that from that when I came in I'll always have a kind of good relationship and the closest with you. Not that I don't have it with other people coming through. It's just it's kind of like how do you explain it? Like your if you're a teacher, your first set of kids, you'll always kind of be close to them if you get me. And so, not that I see, but you know, it's the first people that let me interview them and be a part of their journey. And I want to thank you for letting me be a part. And I can't wait to see this weekend. Thank you so much, Andrew. >> Always good to have you in my corner, man.