Phil Baroni: more blue collar than badass
Phil Baroni is the man fight fans love to hate, the self-styled New York Badass, but this bad boy image…
Phil Baroni is the man fight fans love to hate, the self-styled New York Badass, but this bad boy image which promoters like to project is a million miles away from the real Baroni. In person, he is warm, open, and quite brutally honest.
As Baroni reaches the twilight of his MMA career he is anxious to set the record straight. “The whole New York Badass thing is a gimmick more than anything, but I am getting older now—I will be 34 when I next fight. Being a punk at 24 is cool but now I think it’s tired. I’m not a punk or a wise guy I am a regular guy, a blue collar guy, and a hard worker and that’s my real personality, he says.
Baroni made his UFC debut in 2002. He was cut by the UFC in 2005 after losing four consecutive fights but seven years later, after a successful stint fighting in Japan, he found himself surprisingly recalled. Since his return Baroni has already fought once, losing via decision to Amir Sadollah, and is desperate to get back to winning ways when he returns to the Octagon in four months time,
I have a four-fight contract but I need to start winning or I know I will get cut. I don’t want to get cut by the UFC because it took me six long years to fight my way back. I have always wanted to finish my career in the UFC and I wouldn’t want to be released now as it would be a long hard road back, he says.
Baroni is the eternal optimist but if he is unable to take advantage of his second opportunity inside the Octagon it is highly unlikely he will get a third.
When Baroni made his UFC comeback last November he found that much had changed in the intervening years, not least the attitude of the fans. “I used to get booed by the fans and it definitely bothered me but I didn’t realize it until I came back from Japan. In Japan the fans liked me and they cheered for me. Then when I fought Frank Shamrock in his hometown I got booed and it bothered me.”
Since returning to the UFC he feels that fight fans are finally starting to see him in a new light. “I think people are starting to like me, even Jo Rogan seemed to want me to win my last fight. Now I am just being myself and I think the real fight fans like that and appreciate me. I never look for a way out in a fight, I am a real fighter I am not just an athlete who fights.”
Being just a regular guy does have its disadvantages for Baroni, who lives in Las Vegas with his wife and children. “A lot of the problem is that I have never been part of a team, a lot of the most successful guys are on teams and they hang out together.
“My friends are all regular guys who go out and drink and gamble and don’t live at a gym or have a healthy lifestyle. I need to get out of Las Vegas and hang out with people who are positive role models because hanging out with regular guys is not conducive to being a professional fighter.”
