Caught Under Conrad, Barry Discovered Claustrophobia

Pat Barry, on “Beatdown,” discussing what it’s like to get caught under Bellator heavyweight champion Cole Konrad:

“I had never known I was claustrophobic until Cole Konrad laid on top of me. … I remember the first time rolling around with him, like the first or second day I was there, I got tackled by this guy and the fact that he can hold me down to where I was completely incapable of moving or protecting myself, the first thing I started thinking was, ‘If we were in an alley right now, I would be dead. If we were in an alley, I’d be dead. There’s nothing that I can do about it.’ … Powerlifters, get out of my face, man. Wrestlers are the strongest dudes ever. The fact that you’ve got guys who are ridiculously strong and who know how to manipulate your body to where you’re completely paralyzed and they can sit there and just do whatever they want to you, that’s scary. That’s like one of the first times that I can recall thinking, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do MMA anymore.’ It almost scared me out of the sport. I was like, ‘This is just unfair. I’m going to buy a gun and I’m going to just carry it around with me because there might be a wrestler in the parking lot somewhere.’”