Daniel Barry | Writer

This post was originally written for BORN STRONGER in January 2010.

In 14 days I am going to be 34 years old…still a young man by most people’s standards. In my 33-plus years I graduated college, got married, had a child and had some fun along the way. If I were to die tomorrow, there really wouldn’t be much else to put on my tombstone. Not that I’m complaining. I feel I’ve lived a good life and am happy with the way it turned out.

On November 6th, 2010, Pat Tillman would have celebrated his 34th birthday. Like me, he graduated college and got married. However, that’s about as much as I have in common with the man. As a star linebacker for the Arizona State Sun Devils, Tillman played in the Rose Bowl. He got drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, was named to Dr. Z’s 2000 All-Pro team and served as an elite Army Ranger. I can’t help but feel his life was a little fuller than mine.

By now everyone knows what happened to Specialist Patrick Daniel Tillman on April 22nd, 2004.

(Read the rest of the post here.)

This post was written for BORN STRONGER in November of ’09.

Fedor Emelianenko is a great fighter. There isn’t a MMA fan on the planet that would argue otherwise. But how great is he? Is he the best of all-time or a very good fighter who hasn’t squared off against top competition? One would think that a second round KO of the previously undefeated Brett Rogers would silence many of Fedor’s critics. On the contrary, they seem to be getting louder.

Many of his detractors say Rogers lost the fight more than Fedor won it. Others point out that it was Fedor who looked beat up after the fight and not Rogers. No question this was due to the gash Rogers opened up on Fedor’s nose. (Previous reports of Emelianenko’s nose being broken during the bout proved to be false.) Even Rogers himself is adding fuel to the fire by claiming he was hesitant and could have done much better.

The answer to this problem is simple: Bring Fedor Emelianenko to the UFC.

(Read the rest of the post here)

This post was originally written for BORN STRONGER in September of ’09.

For a few hours a couple of weeks back, BORN STRONGER fighter Jamie Varner’s professional mixed martial arts career was over. A broken hand that never healed properly had derailed his meteoric rise to the top of the MMA world and the WEC was stripping him of his belt.

But Jamie Varner is still the lightweight champion of the WEC. His hand, while still not completely healed, is getting better. The rumor of his premature retirement has been attributed to a quote from a WEC general manager, Reed Harris, who claims he was misquoted. It just goes to show you how powerful social media can be in today’s 140 character per message age.

The injury occurred last January during Varner’s epic championship bout with “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone. During the fight, Varner also suffered a broken foot and concussion that occurred when Cerrone inadvertently and illegally kneed Varner in the temple while Jamie was on the ground. Despite being given time to recover Varner was unable to continue. Even though the fight was stopped prematurely, Varner retained his championship belt because he was ahead on points. At the time, the crowd didn’t realize the severity of Varner’s injuries. They thought he was looking for a way out of the fight. They thought he was a quitter. And they let him know it.

Read the rest of post here.

I wrote this post in August of 2009 for BORN STRONGER. They had just signed an unknown fighter named Todd Duffee to their fight team and asked me to cover his UFC debut.

There were a lot of fireworks in Portland last night. Between Minotauro and Couture’s classic duel and the vicious KO’s scored by Silva and Marquadt, UFC 102 had more than it’s share of great moments.

But one of UFC 102’s most memorable moments wasn’t even seen by most people viewing the event at home or in a bar. The event occurred during the undercard bout between undefeated heavyweight Todd Duffee and Tim Hague. Duffee, a former police officer and member of the BORN STRONGER fight team, sent Hague sprawling to the mat with a vicious jab just seven seconds into round one! Duffee’s KO set a new record for fastest KO ever in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. With the win, Duffee improved his undefeated record to 5-0 with all five of his wins coming via TKO or KO.

Quite a lot of buzz had been building up around Duffee before the fight had even occurred. As a freestyle fighter, Duffee fights out of the legendary American Top Team Academy in Coconut Creek, FL. American Top Team is famous for churning out some of the most well-rounded fighters in all of Mixed Martial Arts. Before the Hague fight, Duffee had stopped Brazilian heavyweight Assuerio Silva at Jungle Fight 11 in Rio de Janiero. While not exactly Brock Lesnar, Silva is still one heck of a fighter. For Duffee to defeat him by TKO via punches just a minute into the second round is quite a feat.

Read the rest of the post here.

I wrote this post for BORN STRONGER in August, 2009. BORN STRONGER had just signed WEC fighter, Rani Yahya to their roster and asked me to cover his fight at WEC 42. (A few minor changes have been made to the original post.)

Another WEC bout for BORN STRONGER fighter Rani Yahya. Another victory to add to his MMA resume. After losing to Chase Beebe in a 5-round WEC championship bout via decision in September of 2007, Yahya has roared back to win three of his next four fights with all three coming in the WEC.
Originally slated to fight Kenji Osawa on the WEC 42 undercard, Rani was forced to fight John Hosman after Osawa pulled out with a foot injury. On Sunday, it took him just 2:08 to finish off Hosman with a nifty north-south choke.

The fight earned Rani Yahya $16,000 and an additional $10,000 for earning his third consecutive Submission of the Night bonus in the WEC. The fight also moved the BORN STRONGER Fight Team a step closer to adding another WEC champion to their squad. (The BORN STRONGER team already has WEC Lightweight champ Jamie Varner on their roster.)

Read the complete post here.

I wrote this post in July of 2009 for BORN STRONGER. I wrote it a few days after Brock Lesnar defeated Frank Mir at UFC 100. A few minor changes were made. The original post can be found here.

Baseball has the Yankees. Football has the Cowboys. The UFC has Brock Lesnar. Sports need bad guys. The kind of teams and people that galvanize the audience to turn on the tube and root, root, root for the other team.

After the disastrous strike of 1994, Major League Baseball needed a comeback. Much has been made of how the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run race rekindled America’s love affair with the national past time. But the success of the New York Yankees was far more responsible for the rebirth of baseball than McGwire and Sosa. Even the lowliest franchise would sell out when the Yankees were in town. Who didn’t want to see the hometown boys take on Torre and company?

People hate a winner. Especially a winner who plays in a big market and has a payroll that exceeds the GDP of Ecuador. (Read the rest of the post here.)