Let’s GOOOOOO! As you probably saw Red worked some magic and your boy gets to live his MMA blogger dream Saturday when we get to sit cageside at Cage Titans, a premier New England MMA promotion.

This week I’ll be speaking with a few of the fighters competing this Saturday to get their thoughts on everything from the their upcoming bouts to the fight game in general.

I led off by speaking with Peter Barrett, an insanely talented vet of the New England MMA scene, which I knew, and a sharp mind when it comes to the fight game and the local scene, which I did not. He fights Zach DiSabatino in a lightweight bout this coming Saturday at Cage Titans XLIV.

A destructive Muay Thai striker that has rounded his game off on the mats of Lauzon MMA. As he rolled up to Lauzon’s on Monday, he gave us a few minutes of his time to discuss his training, the New England MMA scene, and his penchant for rendering the scorecards unnecessary

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The 300s: So you took some time off between fights, I think a year, year and a half maybe, was that by design or no? Was this just the right time to take a fight?

Barrett: Well originally, I hurt my arm fighting Connor Barry, so I took some time off for that. But I’ve actually been trying to get a fight since November, actually September.

The 300s: Really?

Barrett: So I was supposed to fight Blair Tugman for Bellator and then he tested positive for steroids, suspended a year and that fight got scrapped. Then November for Cage Titans, I tried to get on there against Keegan (Hornstra), he ended up having a health issue with a new doctor that had been previously cleared by another doctor, but not this one. So that fight got cancelled at weigh-ins. I was aiming for January for Cage Titans and that opponent pulled out. So it’s been about a year since I fought last and I’ve been trying to fight for the last eight months.

The 300s: O wow

Barrett: I mean my trainings been good, everything’s been consistent, I was just talking to Jason Floyd the other day and mentioned that in hindsight maybe not fighting for a year was the best thing that could have happened. For awhile it felt like fighting and training, from my perspective I had built it up to be like a job more than it was to have fun and enjoy myself and be creative and just like, enjoy it, you know?  You see guys like Rob and Calvin (Rob Font and Calvin Kattar, two fighters from MA on the UFC roster) and they’re laughing and having a blast every day at training and I wasn’t, that wasn’t what it was for me at the time. Now I’m back to that. Having fun with training, learning, getting better you know? I’m just really enjoying myself. This camp has been incredible. My cardio, my strength, my skill everything is coming full circle and it’s going to put out the best product I’ve had so far.

The 300s: So this fight Cage Titans is promoting as short notice, do you think some of that “fun” is coming back from not having to think about an 8-10 week camp, you just had a few weeks and then “go”?

Barrett: Well actually I was scheduled to fight this kid Darius from Jackson-Wink. And he started dropping hints that he was going to pull out basically two weeks before we announced the fight with Zach. He hadn’t completely pulled out but we, we being Cage Titans, had already started talking to South Shore (South Shore Sport Fighting, DiSabatino’s gym) about this fight. We had it done about a week and a half before it was announced.

The 300s: You mentioned Zach, he has a lot less experience than you. Some would say that’s an automatic advantage for you but at the same time there’s also a lot less, you know, “game tape” type stuff to go on. Does that effect how you prepare at all?

Barrett: No not so much, he’s also one of Cage Titans guys. I’m familiar with Zach, I’m familiar with his style. But he did just lose to Estell in his last fight. There’s no tape of that fight. Somehow Flo lost it when they were transferring files. It’s not on Flo, Youtube, Facebook. But if you look back at his fight with Keegan Raymond, which Keegan did not answer the bell for the beginning of the third round, maybe he quit after the first round…but Keegan was able to pressure him and pick apart Zach pretty easily you know? And that’s what we saw at the last fight. Darius Estell, his last opponent, just beat the breaks off him. And that’s what I’m taking into this. He doesn’t do well under pressure, he covers up, he shells up, and I’ll be able to, really just stay in control and pressure this fight the way I want it to go.

The 300s: Before we hit “go” (Note: Before I hit record) you mentioned you were spending some time at Lauzon’s, I know you’re at Sityodtong, are you vacillating between those two, those are your home camps?

Barrett: Ya so for this fight I added some time over here at Lauzon’s which has been a great help to my ground game. My home base has always been at Sityodtong and that’s where I got most of my training for this camp. I also went down to Triforce working with Nate (Andrews) a little bit before his PFL fight. I’ve been up with Tom Egan’s guy’s at Trifecta in Quincy wrestling. You know, like you said, I’ve been in the game for a little bit, got a really good relationship across the community, and it’s provided me with the opportunity to cross-train outside of my home camp as much as possible which is a blessing.

The 300s: Ya that’s cool. I didn’t even plan to ask you this but reading between the lines over the years, it seems unlike the big camps in California and Florida that seem to have beef with each other, the Mass MMA community and MMA gyms seem to have pretty good relationships and at least healthy, friendly competition. Any thoughts on that?

Barrett: Ya that’s what makes it work – at least the higher level pro promotions in the area like CES, Cage Titans, they do a good job of bringing guys in for local guys so local guys don’t necessarily have to fight each other, which then lets us cross-train and just get better and really increase the level of competition in the area, which is the end game. We want to be able to say, “I come from New England MMA, we’re some of the baddest motherfuckers in the country,” you know? We got guys like Rob and Calvin, who just destroyed Ricardo Lamas last weekend, they’re the guys putting the name out for Northeast MMA right now. By being able to cross-train and bring that level up behind the scenes it allows  us to go out there and perform so much better.

The 300s: That’s Awesome, that’s really cool. Look I only have one more and it’s been burning a hole in me, it’s the one I’ve been waiting to ask: you are hands down the one true, blue knockout artist on this card. Are you giving us one Saturday?

Barrett: Absolutely. 100%. You’re either going to get total fuckin knock out or Zach is going to crawl out of that cage because he can’t stand on his lead leg anymore.

The 300s: I love it. Alright man, I don’t want to hold you up anymore, anything you want to throw out there before I put this to print?

Barrett:  Yes Shout out to my sponsors  Butcher Box Sports, Sheath Underwear, DGAF Clothing, Zen Den in Norwell. Those are my big guys that are always behind me so check them out on their social medias as well.

Peter Barrett’s social: Twitter, IG

Peter “Slippery Pete” Barrett vs. Zach DiSabatino goes down at Cage Titans Titans XLIV. June 15, 2019 at 6:00pm at Plymouth Memorial Hall in Plymouth. MA.