BBN Exclusive - Pat Barrett: “I want people to know I’m still around” (Part I) by Terry Dooley Jul 10th 2008

BBN's Terry Dooley recently caught up with former British and European light-welterweight champion, Pat Barrett, for a chat about his career. On a rainy summer's evening I found myself sitting in a car in Salford waiting to meet former British and European light-welterweight Champion Pat Barrett. We eventually managed to pinpoint Pat's whereabouts; his stated location seemed odd at first due to the fact that it was the exact same spot where we had been sitting for half an hour. A few conversations later we realised that we were on opposite sides of the same building. Upon meeting, Pat directed us to his flat so that we could make up for lost time. As we stood in the elevator making chit-chat Pat told us about his apartment, it was situated on the ninth, and final, floor of the building. At this point we looked at the elevator buttons and noticed that there were nineteen floors in our current building. Pat had brought us to the wrong building. At this point I realised that we were going to get along tremendously. Pat Barrett is one of those boxing figures that mean many things to many people. For some a potential world champion who never quite made it, in the eyes of others one of boxing's real ‘characters' (with a capital C), or a mystery figure who some thought was dead, or in jail. In reality he is trying to make his own moves in the sport of boxing by helping out Brian Hughes in his Collyhurst gym, whilst also trying to get off the ground as a promoter. Before moving onto his current situation I asked Pat about his first memories of the sport: “I started (boxing) at the age of sixteen. My older brother got me into it. He was an amateur boxer. When you're a young kid you have someone that you just follow and my brother was the person I liked to follow. I used to watch him do a bit and tried to copy him. He came everywhere with us when I turned pro, every fight except for the (European) title fight (against Efrem Calamati) in Italy. Every fight I had in England he came (to) and my sisters (did) too. “Then Brian (Hughes) took an interest in me and showed me how to do a bit more with my talent. I had a few stoppages as an amateur but wouldn't put myself down as a puncher then. All that came later, as a pro. “It was just after my mum died that I decided to turn pro [in 1987]. I was not highly touted and turned over without anyone really behind me. “I had very little experience and no knowledge at all but I would fight anybody. Brian got me an early fight [Iskender Savas] that people thought I was supposed to lose as it was his turf [Switzerland to be exact]. “We get to the ring and there are two pairs of gloves, one of those old pair of straw gloves and a nice set of 8 oz gloves. We tossed for the gloves. I lost the toss but Brian picked up the nice gloves. I was saying “Brian we lost the toss” but he was away with the gloves. They kept saying stuff to him and pointing at the gloves but he said “speaky no English” and put them on me. Their kid was meant to win this fight – it was his show – and I was brought over to lose but I knocked this kid over and there was a fucking uproar. When you go with Brian it is these little things (that) you always remember. “Listening to Brian I would be so relaxed before a fight that I never cared about getting into the ring. With all his stories, even if you were shitting yourself, you would step out to (the) fight relaxed – not even in your hometown – and you would feel you are going to win. It is hard to explain. You pick up things from him when you are around him.” One of his earliest fights came against Paul Burke. I asked Pat if that early name stood out on his record: “Nah, it was more like I stood out on Paul's record because he was the only one to actually beat me properly in my career. It was one of those controversial decisions really where either of us could say we had won it. It was very close and I suffered a late knockdown that tipped it in his favour. “I'm glad it (defeat) happened in the early stage of my career because later on in my career I don't think I could have taken defeat that well. I then went 31 fights undefeated.” That undefeated run did feature a blemish; five fights after the Burke loss Barrett drew with Sugar Gibiliru in 1988. A run of wins soon glossed over these setbacks and Barrett faced Gibiliru once again in 1989, this time with the Central Area title at stake, as Pat explained: “I fought Sugar Gibiliru then fought a return with him for the Central Area title, he was meant to be a puncher but I stopped him in the eighth round. From the Sugar Gibiliru fight something clicked. From there on I was knocking people out. “This all happened to me like “boom!”. (I) turned pro at 18, won the British title at 21 went onto the European and before that I'd been winning the Central Area (title) so there is a picture there, Central Area to European. “Then I fought Roberto Trevino [in the meantime Pat won the British title with a ninth round KO over Tony Willis] and that was another knockout. I wasn't inspired by boxing at first. It was about getting paid. I remember that I had just taken over my sister's apartment and had to fix it up so I needed money to get it all done. It was all about money at the time.” A draw is often a good thing for a fledgling fighter. It helps them understand that perhaps they are doing something right – enough at least to get them a half of a result – as well as enforcing the fact that they are doing something wrong. James Toney's draw with Sanderline Williams saw him bring in Bill Miller, who gave him the perfect style to roll with, literally. An early draw against Sugar Ray Seales gave Marvin Hagler a means by which he could test his progress, he later hammered Seales in a single round. The first fight with Gibiliru showed that Pat's technique had yet to gel physically and stylistically, his movement was good enough to get him into position but his bursts of shots on the outside often hit the gloves of his opponent, this in turn allowed Sugar to work inside; the draw being the fair result. In the second fight Pat had taken a leaf out of Sugar's book in the hairstyle sense – Pat Sugar had a trendy mane in fight one and Pat a short back and sides, roles were reversed in fight two – yet in the early going his punching was still not truly settled. However Barrett began to move on the outside to find decent spots and would then lure his opponent in before pouncing his spot with short hooks, one such hook, a left, flattening Gibiliru for a good few minutes. Pat's form then enabled him to step into a British light-welterweight title fight against Tony Wills, who had represented Britain at the 1980 Olympics and had already won a British title himself, albeit at lightweight. A late replacement for Clinton McKenzie Pat won the fight with a vicious left hook KO. It served as a turning point for the guy who had turned pro without any title dreams. As Pat explained: “I was knocking people out and got the Tony Willis fight after one of the McKenzie brothers pulled out. Brian said, “I've got good news and I've got bad news”. The bad news was that it was going to be a British title fight but the good news was that Tony was there for the taking. Brian said that opportunity only knocks once and I was ready to take this title. He said we had only just fought for a title so I only had to tick over in the gym. I had done the hard work. He told me my weight was ready so we took the fight and it paid off. “After the British title fight I realised that I could go somewhere. My mentality wasn't to win a world title (at the start). I was not inspired by the idea of becoming world Champion (I) just needed the money at that time. It wasn't until later on when I realised that people were taking a big interest in me and that I was going places that I decided to go for it.” As mentioned Barrett was a fighter who was put on the road early in his career, initially being brought in as the opponent, this ‘road warrior' start meant that when the time came to go abroad for significant fights Barrett was already used to the experience: “Going abroad was part of the job for me. With Brian (Hughes) training me I always believed that I was ready to win anywhere. “With Brian it is an inspiration. He gets you more mentally ready than physically. If you are physically ready but not mentally ready you are going to lose, because you don't know which version of you is going to turn up on the night. If you are mentally ready, even if you aren't fit, you have about a seventy percent chance of winning. Once your mind is strong and determined it won't let the body give up. You will always stay in there. “I turned pro as a nobody. I was only there to be used by up-and-coming fighters. You pay those journeymen guys a bit more and put them on to lose. So every early fight I had I was meant to get beaten. This is what you don't realise. “Today you see how things are in boxing. Take Amir Khan – who is a great fighter, don't get me wrong – (but) he gets fed guys. I didn't get those types of fights until I was champion and by then I didn't need them anyway because whoever they would have given me to fight (it) would have gone the same way (a KO win). “I wasn't looked after by anyone but Brian. If it weren't for Brian I would have been thrown in with anybody. Brian had faith and trust in me. He saw the talent in me even though I couldn't see it. I see my kids coming up now and see the talent in them and I tell them “listen, if you work hard you can become world Champion” and they probably think “yeah, whatever” but you need someone with faith in you. “Me and Brian are like father and son. You do have your little disagreements, everyone has their ups and downs, but I would never disrespect him because anything he has done for me he did for the best…everything else is down to me because you get to an age where you think you know everything and you stop listening. That is when you become a head banging into a wall.” However, in a few of his fights Hughes was suspended from Barrett's corner and this loss seemed to impact on the performances of Barrett at a crucial time in his career, particularly during the Dwayne Swift fight, a tepid points win over ten rounds. In the mind of Barrett, though, Hughes was in the corner in spirit: “Brian was suspended from my corner but was still there at ringside for my fights. Once you've worked in the gym there is nowt else you can do with the fighters. I'd had my work with Brian before the fight so that is the main thing.” During his successful run Barrett signed with manager Mickey Duff, presuming that Duff, a fading force at the time, would bring him the world title shot he craved. Duff guided Barrett to a European title win over Efrem Calamati in 1990, and subsequent defences, only to fail to bring him a shot at the light-welterweight title, this left Barrett feeling dejected, and increasingly flat in his performances: “I thought (after signing with Duff) that things were going to elevate, definitely. Mickey Duff could not produce a world championship fight at the time though. I defended the European title a few times and it began to get a bit boring. Someone like me needs new interests. You get bored quickly. “I went from the Central Area, to the British, to the European, and you know what should come next don't you? It should have been a world title. When you've got a fighter into that zone you have to feed them. But it was “European title this, and purse bids this” and I was getting bored. I wasn't being moved up that extra level. “I eventually moved to Frank Warren. I had a meeting with him and once we had that meeting he said he would get me so many fights and get me a world title fight. He delivered. I had to move up a weight (to welterweight) to get it but he delivered the fight with Manning Galloway.” A successful champion looking for pastures new often makes a move up in weight. In the case of Barrett it was a pragmatic move, he wanted to fight Julio Cesar Chavez but there was a major queue, in lieu of that fight a bout for a welterweight title was the next best step. Even though Pat himself was reticent about his chances as a welterweight: “I didn't want to move up a weight at all. Everyone said “move up a weight you're struggling to make weight” but I honestly preferred the hard work of stripping down to the weight. When you have to work hard to make the weight you are properly in the zone. You get stripped and ripped. Carrying that extra few pounds I felt strong but it wasn't natural. I was mentally strong but not physically strong if you know what I mean. “At 10 stone I knew I had all the advantages – like Ricky Hatton does – but at welterweight I didn't have them – like Ricky Hatton again. At welterweight Ricky doesn't have it. He beat Kostya Tszyu at light-welterweight with his strength but look at him in his fights at welterweight. Certain weight categories suit you and you have to stay in them. You can move up and make millions but once you move up in weight you lose that strength.” A loss against Manning Galloway in 1992, a fight in which the stylistic approaches favoured the southpaw title holder, was later followed by a loss for the British welterweight title, on points versus Delroy Bryan in 1993: “I fought Delroy Brian at welterweight for the British title and lost on points. It wasn't (just) the strength it was the fact it was not right for me. I trained hard for the welterweight fights but there was something missing. I had to train extremely hard to make light-welterweight, extremely hard. Skipping in saunas and all that to shift pounds [as was the case prior to the win over Willis]…that to me was part of the training. It wasn't right for me if I didn't have to train like that. Does that sound mad? At welterweight I was already there (at the weight) and would come into training 2 lbs over the weight – this is nothing – I had more impact at the lower weight.” Thrown into the mix was the fact that the Galloway fight was called off a number of times. Barrett felt then, as now, that Galloway used the delays to deflate Barrett and work on a way to defuse his style: “First time I was supposed to fight Galloway I would have knocked him out. I was down to fight him three times. One time it was (cancelled) bang on the press conference. Imagine, you're at your press conference waiting to fight for the world title. You have your meal and are getting ready for the biggest fight of your life only to get told “the fight's off”. I was like “what do you mean the fight's off?” The guy had to go back to America – I think his brother got shot or something like that [Galloway cited gastroenteritis as the reason for the delay]. It was hard. Do you know how demoralising it feels? You've done all that hard work and it is now your time. You've got the papers, the news and all the people saying “Barrett is going to get his title fight” and next thing you know boom, the fight is cancelled. “I fought Mike Johnson (instead) [in 1991] but my mind was gone out of it [Barrett was hurt badly in round one before finishing his opponent with a left hook off the ropes]. I didn't want to even be in the ring that night. They asked me if I wanted to fight and I just (shrugs). It ain't no world title fight. It doesn't mean anything. I wasn't even bothered about getting the payday by then. When it was all about the payday I would have cared but it was now about the title and I wasn't interested (in the non-title bout) but had to take the fight to stay busy.” When they did finally fight Galloway proved what many had suspected about Pat. Pat had often stated that he could box and move but this was only partially true. Less effective as a mover he would land his shots after using movement to lure his opponent forward, setting traps for his opponents to walk into. Pat could box on the move to an extent but he could not box against movers. Galloway lived up to his nickname of ‘The Spoiler' and defused Barret with his lateral movement. Sometimes dropping his gloves in frustration Barrett could not set himself for his shots and never looked like winning the fight. In Part II we will discuss Pat's KO power, his earlier fights and how he thinks he would have done in a fight with Chavez. Pictures: Andy Ball

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