Following his bout with Mirco “Cro Cop” Flipovic (27-8-3) at UFC 115, Pat “HD” Barry (6-2) received a lot of negative criticism. Throughout the first round of the fight, Barry landed some big shots on his idol, but didn’t pull the trigger when he was hurt. During the second and third rounds, Barry seemed as if he was holding back a bit and pulling punches up until the point that he was forced to tapout due to a rear naked choke.

Following the fight, critics rained down on Pat Barry for giving Cro Cop “too much respect” and not having the “killer instinct need to finish fights”. However, Barry later stated that the reason he couldn’t finish Cro Cop later in the fight is because he had broken both his hand and his foot in that first round. Granted Barry could’ve jumped on Cro Cop after dropping him either time, but with a broken hand what he could have done on the ground may have been very limited. You could even argue the case that Barry was winning that fight going into the third round and had he not been submitted, would have picked up the decision victory.

Using that criticism as motivation in training to face Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran (12-5), Pat Barry stated that for the first time in a long while he felt “the anger inside and the need to just go out and break something.” In the weeks leading up to the fight, a lot of people were talking about how Beltran vs. Barry was going to be a slugfest similar to Beltran’s fight with Mitrione. However, the first round of the fight was anything but that. As Barry explained it, “it was both of us trying to work our own individual strategies and not break from the game plan.” After three rounds of action, Pat Barry was declared the victor by Unanimous Decision, but too much dismay, the critics weren’t silenced just yet.

Once again, the talks of Barry’s “lack of killer instinct” came back out onto the table. While he may not have finished Joey Beltran, he certainly left his mark on Joey’s leg; literally. Throughout the fight, Barry continually attacked Beltran’s lead leg and caused him to collapse a couple of times, including one instance at the very end of the fight in which his leg gave out completely and he fell to the ground at the bell. From there, he proceeded to stand up and limp gingerly to his corner to await the reading of the judge’s score cards. Barry also threw in a handful of head kicks that could have easily knocked out many other fighters, which is evidence for Joey’s toughness and not necessarily a “lack of killer instinct” from Barry.

What exactly will Pat Barry have to do in order to get people to move on from that? Does he have to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Mirco Cro Cop, and start throwing numerous head kicks in hopes of scoring some big knockouts? Does he need to improve his ground game and try to score some flashy submission victories?

Has everyone forgotten that Patrick “HD” Barry the same man who, going into the Antoni Hardonk fight, didn’t even know when his next meal was going to be? With little to no money to his name, Pat Barry had his back against the wall with nowhere to go and no idea what the future held for him. In a do or die situation, Barry lived up to his credo of “hype or die” and not only defeated his opponent, but picked up the Fight of the Night and the Knockout of the Night bonus; giving himself a new chance at life. If that isn’t the epitome of owning a killer instinct, it definitely isn’t too far off.

It seems that many of Barry critics have over looked the fact that five of his six victories have come by way of KO/TKO, three of which were the result of leg kicks. He is also the holder of an 18-6 kickboxing record, with nine of those wins coming by way of Knockout.