“I Thought He Took The Easy Way Out” – Dean Barry Reflects On His DQ Loss To Mike Jackson
At UFC Fight Night Night: Andrade vs. Lemos, Irish prospect Dean Barry made his long-awaited UFC debut. The skilled striker had been signed to the UFC in 2020, but a multitude of reasons resulted in him not making his first appearance until now.
Dean Barry took on Mike Jackson, who fans will no doubt remember as the second fighter to compete against WWE star CM Punk inside the UFC. Early on in the fight, Barry was living up to his nickname, ‘The Sniper.’ He was piecing Jackson up with brutal strikes. However, a spinning back kick to the groin of Jackson saw the fight paused.
When it resumed, Barry continued to throw a barrage of strikes at Jackson, before landing a gruesome eye poke that resulted in the fight being called off. Whilst the commentary team seemed confident that the bout would be ruled a No Content, referee Chris Toigoni ruled the fight a DQ win to Jackson.
Dean Barry has since taken to his Instagram, where he posted a video in which he stated the following:
“Firstly I just wanna say, look, sorry about what happened tonight. It was an unintentional eye poke. I didn’t mean to poke him in the eye. I tried to frame off, and after I threw the flying knee, I tried to frame off and do it again. And I caught him in the eye. And they said backstage that they were taking that very strict, if anyone did poke someone in the eye. I was lighting him up at the time. I felt very heavy out there, it’s not my weight class so I felt really off. At the start, I felt a bit – Obviously getting the jitters for the first fight in the UFC and took me a minute to get into it.”
However, Dean Barry went on to state that he believes Jackson jumped at the opportunity to have the fight canceled:
“To be honest with ya, I thought he took the easy way out there. Didn’t want to continue fighting. Even when I kicked him low, he was talking on the ground to me for ages. Like if you get hit in the nuts, you can’t be talking like that. Same with the eye pokes, straight after the ref called the fight off he was fine. Both eyes open perfectly. He said he can’t open his eye so, look, I’ll take the rematch in a heartbeat.”
What are your thoughts on the eye poke? Would you like to see Dean Barry and Mike Jackson run it back?
