Gym 01's Barry toasts perfect pro MMA debut

The light heavyweight, who trains out of Southsea’s Gym 01, blitzed his way past Gareth Hales at Shock N Awe 27 on Saturday.

Barry finished the fight just one minutes and 47 seconds into the very first round at the Mountbatten Centre.

After taking his opponent down, the former University of Portsmouth student landed a number of ground-and-pound punches.

As a result, Hales – who trains out of Portchester’s Castle Martial Arts – gave up his position.

Barry profited and locked in an armbar submission which caused the former Shock N Awe light heavyweight champion to tap out.

Although the Gym 01 charge knew he was in for a tough battle, he was always confident he’d clinch a maiden pro success.

Barry said: ‘It was a great win and went exactly how I expected it to.

‘I was just calm and collected. I found my rhythm and flow and knew how it was going to go on my way to the cage. It was only a matter of time before he tapped.

‘I knew he would press forward so when he came into me I took him down to the ground.

‘I punched him quite a lot before he gave up his position. The game plan was to pressure him and let him make a mistake.

‘When he gave me that opportunity, I took it and locked in the armbar.

‘I knew it was going to be a tough fight.

‘But from the get-go it was the only sort of fight I wanted to be taking.

‘I’m in this game to challenge myself and if I’m not doing that then what’s the point?

‘It was lovely to cement all my hard work.

‘Fighting is a mental game and the closer I got to the cage my confidence grew and I was ready to do business.’

Before the fight, Barry was determined to make a statement to the UK MMA scene.

He believes he did so with a dominant victory over Hales.

Now the Welshman is planning to drop to 185lb and ‘terrorise’ the middleweight division.

Barry added: ‘I do hope I have made a statement, especially now the plan is to drop to middleweight – which I know I can do.

‘If I get my diet right then I know I can terrorise that division.

‘That’s been the plan all along and now I know I can stand and trade with these big boys then going down to 185lb I can bully people.

‘But while I do intend to go down to middleweight, I’m more than happy to take more light heavyweight fights and get that experience.

‘While I got the win there are still a few things to be worked on and I’ll be staying ready for whatever comes around the corner.’