Pat Barry and Rose Namajunas’s engagement has drawn a lot of eyeballs over the years owing to their coach-fighter relationship. The couple met each other years ago when ‘Thug’ joined the Roufusport gym. The relationship has grown since then and the pair have been together for over a decade now.
Barry is an accomplished UFC fighter who joined the organization back in 2008. During his time as an active fighter in the promotion, he fought 13 times against some of the best heavy hitters in the business like Mirko Cro Cop, and Lavar Johnson among others, and holds a UFC record of 8-7-0.
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His last fight was over a decade ago against Soa Palelei back in 2013, where he suffered a KO loss at the hands of the Australian fighter. Weeks later, he decided to hang up his gloves.
It was then that he went on to become a coach and eventually trained Namajunas.
Despite their decade-long relationship, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the couple. The pair have had their share of fallouts and Barry even once admitted to having been responsible for a dip in Namajunas‘ career.
Barry admits to being a distraction for Namajunas
Having your coach as your husband can be a tough situation to balance because it adds a certain personal element to the relationship that not a lot of fighters have.
It can also be incredibly difficult to be strictly professional all the time. Barry even admits to it.
According to an old interview, the former UFC fighter did with Ariel Helwani, he admits to being at fault for some of ‘Thug’ Rose’ performances.
“Go back to any of Rose’s performances that didn’t seem quite right. My fault, it was me. I was the outside distraction, this guy.”
That episode of their lives is in the past now. Having matured since they first met, Barry now not only acts as her coach but is practically her manager as well. From planning her schedule to ensuring she has everything she needs when she travels, Barry essentially takes care of all her business outside the octagon as well.
Namajunas has spoken about how much he has sacrificed for her because he genuinely thinks she is talented enough to be the best in the world.
But as mentioned before, it’s not always been this rosy.
Barry’s battle with addiction
Being a fighter is not an easy job, especially back when Barry was active in the MMA circuit. Needless to say, during this time, he had developed a taste for whiskey and prescription pills, an addiction that has notoriously claimed many a good man and woman. It led to his own career moving out of focus for quite some time.
The situation even got to the point where Namajunas broke up with him right before her fight at UFC 201 with Karolina Kowalkiewicz. To make matters worse, if that were indeed possible at this point, she lost that fight to the judges’ decision.
Barry saw the fight on TV and allegedly blamed himself for not having been able to work with her to fix the mistakes she had made during the bout. This resulted in a moment of clarity for the former fighter as he decided to get clean after all.
Thankfully, Namajunas took him back and helped him through the spell and the two have been going strong ever since.
