Dean Barry believes Mike Jackson took the easy way out last night.
Barry made his highly-anticipated debut in a welterweight bout with Jackson on the UFC Vegas 52 prelims.
The Irish prospect had plenty of success against Jackson — who is most notably known for his win over CM Punk back in 2018 — but did land a spinning back kick to the groin which paused the action.
When the action eventually resumed, Barry continued to have success only to land an inadvertent eye poke on Jackson soon after.
In the end, Jackson couldn’t continue and the fight was called off in the first round with Barry suffering a disqualification loss.
Not how anyone wants to see a fight end.
The fight's been called after an eye poke from Dean Barry in the first. #UFCVegas52 pic.twitter.com/jPBG0ZEpty
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) April 23, 2022
In a post on Instagram, Barry reflected on the fight as well as his UFC debut jitters.
“Had a lot of fun out there and dominated the fight, I felt a bit all over the place at first with the nerves but I got to experience something most only dream of and I’m only doing mma 4 years! Sorry Mike for the accidental eye poke it wasn’t one bit intentional at all brother and wish you well. I’m feeling good just a little upset and frustrated at most it should of been a no contest but this happens.
“Again my apologies for the eye poke never meant it to happen I was seconds away from finishing the fight. On to the next one time for my right weight division. I got the ufc jitters out of the way now and I’m excited to get out again🇮🇪”
Dean Barry: Mike Jackson Didn’t Want To Continue Fighting
But with that said, Barry made another social media post where he felt Jackson took the easy way out by not wanting to continue fighting.
“To be honest with you, I thought he took the easy way out there,” Barry said in a video. “Didn’t want to stay, 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 poke. Straight after the ref called the fight off, he was fine. Both eyes open perfectly. He said he can’t open his eyes.
“Look, I’ll take the rematch in a heartbeat if they give it to me, or just let me go back down to my weight division and fight. I thought I showed enough out there. Sorry about that. … It’s the fight game, this happens. It’s not a loss for me, I was destroying him and I got a DQ for an eye poke. What can you do?”
You can watch it below:
