Barrett: ‘’Middleweight title is my destiny"

“I don’t want to get into that East Coast vs. West Coast thing. Its martial artist vs. martial artist.” laughs New York’s own Wayne Barrett (3-0, 3 KO’s) as he discusses his upcoming fight with Los Angeles man Joe ‘Stitch ‘Em Up’ Schilling (16-4, 10 KO’s) at GLORY 12 NEW YORK.

The fight will headline the November 23 event and, as much as Barrett wants to avoid it, it is impossible to ignore the East vs West Coast undercurrent to this clash. Any time the two coasts collide, pride is on the line.

In addition, the fight has a ‘style wars’ element to it. Schilling is a strictly Muay Thai fighter while Barrett has a Karate background. The rivalry between the styles adds one more layer of intrigue to the upcoming battle.

Barrett was actually out on the West Coast a few weeks ago. He was one of the reservists in the GLORY 10 Middleweight Championship Tournament which took place in Los Angeles on September 28. Barrett won his fight but none of the tournament finalists pulled out, so he never got called up.

“I just came from the West Coast and I got a lot of love. I felt really comfortable over there and the people were cool so I don’t have a problem with those guys,” Barrett says, recalling the night he stopped Robby Plotkin in the first round.

Schilling’s win over the outstanding Russian fighter Artem Levin in the tournament final has made him the talk of the international kickboxing world. Levin was the favorite to win the $150,000 grand prize but Schilling knocked him down twice to take the victory.

“I wasn’t surprised that Joe won. He’s a big guy, I knew he had the opportunity to get it done,” Barrett says. “I was originally up against [Kengo] Shimizu, Schilling’s semi-final opponent, so I knew he had terrible hands. Joe took advantage of that.

“I knew that Levin was going to have difficulties with his fight, like he would have with me. After his first fight, backstage we knew that Levin was hurt a little bit so Joe definitely had the upper hand going into the fight.

“But I don’t want to say anything to take away from him. It was just his night. You can’t fight destiny - when it’s your time, it’s your time. That night was his destiny. It takes a bit of luck, a lot of training and dedication, and you need destiny playing out in there.

“I believe in destiny. Ever since childhood I have been ‘Mr Workout’ - I was always the guy going doing these crazy workouts. My friends were like ‘what the hell are you doing?’ and I think now that this fight with Joe was the reason why.

“I have been preparing for this since childhood, preparing for the martial arts. I was always pushing my body to the limit - now I know it was in preparation for this moment.”

GLORY 12 NEW YORK takes place on Saturday, November 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The event, which airs live on Spike TV in the USA, features a $150,000 four-man Lightweight Championship Tournament between Giorgio Petrosyan, Robin Van Roosmalen, Davit Kiria and Andy Ristie.

“I think Robin can do it and Petrosyan is just amazing but I am going to with a wild card and pick Ristie. He gets a little wild and he drops his hands and gets a bit crazy, but I don’t know, he’s a strong boy,” says Barrett.

“Realistically the final is probably Petrosyan and Van Roosmalen, with Petrosyan winning it like he wins everything. But Ristie is my wild card pick.”

GLORY 11 CHICAGO was the kickboxing premier league’s debut on Spike TV and also featured a four-man tournament in the heavyweight division.

Like millions of fight fans around the world Barrett was glued to his television screen to witness Rico Verhoeven upset Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita to take the $250,000 prize.

“I love Saki and have done for years but I think Rico showed fighters something they should be aware of, which is being over-confident, being too comfortable,” he says.

“I just think that Saki didn’t respect Rico enough. You can’t think you’re going to walk over someone because you’ve had 100 fights and he hasn’t. And the camp around you shouldn’t be making you believe your own hype.

“This sport is not basketball, it’s not baseball. There’s a 50-50 chance in there that you will win or lose.”

Does Barrett rate his own chances against Schilling similarly? “I don’t know man!” he laughs. “I am just going to go in there and do my thing. I’m confident.

“And like I say, I believe in destiny - Wayne Barrett, GLORY Middleweight Champion in 2014. Believe that.”

by John O'Regan