It’s the most sustained run of success Barberena has enjoyed over the course of his eight-year, 15-fight career inside the Octagon, and the father of three is very clear about why things have really started to click for him this year.
“I had been traveling for a while — traveling for camps, being gone all week and being home on weekends with my family — and, for me, being with my family makes me better,” said the man who allows his children to pick his walkout tracks. “The Matt Brown camp, we moved the family to North Carolina.
“I’m home every night. I get to be with them every single day, and that has made me alive,” he added. “Having them around, having them be a part of my life — just being there, being with them daily — had brought back a sense of fire inside of me. Having them close, that’s when you get the best me.”
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While Barberena has been at his best so far this year, he knows that same effort is going to be needed to continue this run of success and claim a victory over Dos Anjos on Saturday.
“He’s been champ, continually getting in there and fighting at the top in two weight classes,” he said of his Brazilian foe, who carried the lightweight title and fought for the interim welterweight belt over the course of his distinguished career. “He’s dangerous everywhere. I knew Robbie probably wasn’t going to shoot a takedown; he was going to stand there and try to take my head off the entire time, and I was going to do the same. With RDA, he’s a master with mixing it up — striking, jiu jitsu; he’s good everywhere and very dangerous everywhere.
“It really excites me because this is a test I want and something I want to show. This is a fight that shows my ability and takes it to the next level — that I can do more than just strike; that I can be dangerous everywhere and that I can go and beat them in those areas.