Pat Barry Speaks Openly About Dennis Munson Jr.’s Death and Rofusport- Exclusive

Back in March of this year, amateur kick-boxer Dennis Munson Jr. died hours after his debut fight in Milwaukee. Since his death, a select few have come forward to speak out about the situation and about his team, Roufusport, led by Duke Roufus.

Those few being current TUF contestant Rose Namajunas and her fiancé, former UFC heavyweight and current Glory fighter, Pat “HD” Barry. Both have trained with Roufusport in the past. Recently, Barry called into BJPENN.COM Radio, and spoke openly about the video of Munson’s fight and why he is speaking out about it. Below you will find a small sample of some of the things Barry had to say. For the full un-edited interview, go listen HERE. It is worth listening to if you want to know more about the situation and Barry puts his heart out there when speaking on the subject.

Barry on why he wants to talk about the situation:

“I want to, I want to bring attention to it. I told the world I’m not going to shut up about this, I’m not going to be quiet about this now, I’m not going to make anything up I’m not going to embellish any stories, I’m not going to do anything else, but I’m going to point out the facts that it is one hundred percent—if anyone out there in the world is listening, is thinking, is trying to figure out what I’m saying, look up Dennis Munson Jr. who had a fight at Aruba Sport events and he died a few hours later—look that video up.”

He continued:

“Look that up and just watch the video and at the end of the video I’ll tell you nothing ever came of that. No one got in trouble, no one spoke up, no one stepped forward, no one took responsibility, nobody took blame. Oh yeah by the way, that was his very first amateur fight, 0-0, never had a fight in his life, 0-0 amateur kickboxing match. Watch the fight and tell me if you do not get emotionally moved by that, if you don’t then you’re a monster.”

Barry stressed many times that it’s that lack of acknowledgment from Munson’s team that he has the biggest issue with.

“At the very least, somebody say, ‘Yeah I blew that, my fault’, at least somebody. But no one has said, ‘Yeah, I probably could have done a little bit of a better job than that’, like nobody. Everybody’s like, ‘Yup, nope, don’t know what happened.'”

Barry, when speaking about what could have been done differently and his confusion as to how no one, especially those in his corner, didn’t notice something was wrong with Munson during the fight.

“I believe that a great coach, a great coach, a fantastic phenomenal coach is the kind of person that knows what’s going on with you as soon as you walk in, off the look on your face. They know your body language, they know the way you walk, they know the way you move, they know the way you combed your hair today, ‘I can tell the way he looks today, he didn’t do well on his history test’. They’re supposed to know you in and out—they’re supposed to be an alternate parental figure.”

“It’s really hard to believe that during that fight someone didn’t [think], ‘Ok, that doesn’t just look like a kid that’s tired, something is wrong.'”

Barry, understandably, was shaken by the video and said that even after watching it only one time, it’s something he will never forget.

“I’ve watched that video one time and I wont watch it again.”

“We watched that kid die man. Not only did we watch the last few minutes of his life, but as a kickboxer myself, as a proclaimed warrior, I’ve been tired before and I kept fighting but I’ve never been dying before and continued to fight. That dude walks forward the whole time. Dennis Munson Jr. marched forward like a warrior that entire fight.”

When speaking about the mindset of fighters and how they are trained to think during a fight, Barry said this:

“Unfortunately it was not his responsibility to say no I’m done, I’m not doing this anymore, because he didn’t know. He’s programmed to believe ‘You’re a Roufusport Spartan!’, ‘You’ve got to go out on your shield!'”

Barry wanted it to be clear that his purpose for coming forward is to just point out that this should have gone a different way and he thinks that it’s clear from the video that things were not handled correctly during that fight.

“The main focus and the main point is that video is undeniable,” and later,”The bumper guards that were there for that fight failed.”

Again, this is just a small portion of what Barry had to say so make sure you listen to the whole thing for even more.

RIP Dennis Munson Jr.