Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone to reinvent yourself. Marc-André Barriault did it and successfully completed his bet.
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The mixed martial arts fighter from Gatineau began his UFC career with three defeats. Then he made a decision that changed his trajectory.
“I’m lucky, I have a partner who isn’t afraid, so in May 2021 we sold everything and left with the caravan and the dog and drove to Florida without a plan B.”
“We went to Deerfield Beach, it changed everything, but it felt good because I changed the environment and rebuilt myself. I rent my caravan, I bought two mobile homes and we live a simple lifestyle.”
reconstruction
He began rebuilding in head coach Henry Hooft’s Kill Cliff Fight Club.
“I saw that I had shortcomings, that I needed to escape from everyday life and get out of my comfort zone, and that’s why I lost my first three fights in the UFC.
“It was always the same result that repeated itself: I had deconstructed myself in order to rebuild myself. I tried it for two weeks, I fell in love with it, I came back and in two months we had liquidated everything.”
But he could well have dropped from the UFC, which doesn’t have a reputation for being very patient with fighters who suffer a series of setbacks.
“I’ve been through everything in the UFC, I’ve lost, I’ve won, I’ve been submitted, I’ve been knocked out, I’ve won by knockout. and by submission. They know I can go in any direction.”
Cruel judgment
There is a cruel side to the world of mixed martial arts, with fighters stepping into the octagon for three five-minute rounds three to four times a year. That’s an hour of their life over 12 months.
“Two months of training for 15 minutes of fighting can be cruel because you are only judged after 15 minutes; People will just remember what you did that night and not before.”
At least his sport is starting to get the respect it deserves.
“We are less and less seen as a barbaric sport, there are still people who think it’s a hockey fight and yes, it happens that we just beat each other, shot for shot.”
“We can flaunt it, but you have to know that we are athletes too. We make videos to study the opponent and their mistakes, like in other sports. And when you’re lying on the ground, there’s so much technique involved, it’s like a game of chess.”
Space for Marc-André
Barriault has been nicknamed “Power Bar,” but when he addresses the subject, he does so in the third person.
“What excites me most, with maturity and experience, is human development. I gave a lot of importance to Power Bar, the athlete, but the athlete stands in the ring for 15 minutes and at the end of the day when I go home, I am Marc-André and I am Marc-André more often than not. I am Power Bar.”
That’s why he wants us to see him first as the man he is and not as an athlete.
“I make sure Marc-André is doing well every day, and when Power Bar puts on his superhero costume, I know that I cheered Marc-André on too. I used to see this duality as an obstacle, but I’ve learned to tame it because I give Marc-André a lot of good gas.
From the kitchen to the octagon
He acquires the discipline he needs to practice his sport in the kitchens of gourmet restaurants because he has two degrees as a chef.
“I worked for Daniel Vézina for two years at the Laurie Raphaël in Quebec and at the Château Montebello. I can say that my school of discipline and rigor was gastronomy, because these are the basics of cooking.”
He aspires to return to the kitchen one day, but on his own terms, and is even talking about opening his own restaurant. He now finds his outlet in the kitchen.
“Today I’m having fun and it’s my escape when I go to the grocery store to choose my products, I have my collection of beautiful knives at home and I’m thinking about maybe making capsules at some point so people can see what I make and when .” I don’t train.