Connor Barry will face veteran fighter Rocky Long in the main event of AMMO Fight League 8: Battle of Saint Patrick’s in Springfield Massachusetts on March 14.
Barry has not fought for over a year due to shoulder surgery he needed to correct an injury that has been nagging the Defensive Edge MMA fighter his whole professional career. “It was a fairly rough surgery to go through, especially since I’ve never had that amount of time off from the sport, but I learned a lot from it. I grew from it, and it was good to finally get my body recovered. I’ve never had that time off so everything recovered”. Barry explained that this has been an issue for a while but feels amazing now, and he’s excited to be back. “It’s been a long time off, this is really the first time that I’ve been fighting with a good shoulder, probably my first pro fight with a good shoulder.”
During his time off Barry started drawing a lot more, a passion the fighter has had for years including going to school at UMass Lowell to study art. “Art is kind of tough to make some money with, cause you need people to commission stuff to work. I love doing memorial portraits, it is rewarding and fun for me but it is also great to do what I love.” Barry has posted a lot of his work on his social media and garnered a lot of attention for his talent.
When asked about his AMMO Fight League 8 fight and his plans for the future, Connor made it very clear he has no interest in fighting regionally anymore. “I think as far as the local scene goes, a local belt, to be honest, and no offense to any promoters, has no interest towards me, it doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“Hopefully after this fight I would ideally like to be fighting (on the Contender Series) this summer. Hopefully I’ll be 7-3 and if its the contender I would fight at 55 or 70.” Pressed on his current standing in the local scene and where he is right now, Barry responded “I don’t necessarily think I will have another local fight, I think this might be my last one. I think I may take some time off after this and make sure everything is going good with the body, make sure the shoulder is feeling 100%, make sure everything is going good and I think the next time you see me or the next time we do an interview I’ll either be fighting in Vegas or at Mohegan.” The UFC or Bellator, in other words.
First, Barry has a 63 fight veteran on his hands. Rocky Long’s professional MMA record is 21-41-1 with fights against elite fighters like former UFC star Sage Northcutt. Connor gave his thoughts on this match-up. “No disrespect to Rocky, he seems like a good guy to me but I don’t think I’m gonna lose this fight. He’s a tough guy and he’s had a lot of fights but he is on the end of his career and I’m in the beginning of my career, and I think my skill level is high enough where I don’t think I’m gonna have any issues with this fight.” Connor was respectful towards his opponent Long, but feels incredibly confident in this match-up predicting a first round KO win for himself come fight night.
