‘I’m an ex-marine and rugby professional – now I’m bare-knuckle boxer with colostomy bag’
Ryan Barrett has had sufficient of feeling embarrassed.
Most individuals wouldn’t count on a former Royal Marines commando, skilled rugby participant and beginner boxer to have physique confidence points. However, having been bullied in his youth, Barrett’s confidence was knocked additional when he was recognized with ulcerative colitis – irritation of the colon and rectum – and discharged from the Marines because of this.
He underwent invasive surgical procedure and was fitted with a colostomy bag. Remarkably although, it didn’t imply an finish to his hopes of forging a profession in fight sport.
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Barrett is now a high bare-knuckle boxer with the BKB promotion. He has held a British title and fought for a world belt, all since a few bouts of main surgical procedure.
The 41-year-old returns to motion on a top-quality card as London O2’s Indigo enviornment hosts BKB 36 on Saturday. He is because of face Tony Barratt, understanding a victory will propel again into title struggle rivalry. Whatever the end result, Barrett’s presence will likely be a victory over a stigma which he’s eager to assist banish.
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(Image: BKB)
“I’d left boxing to go in the marines, now boxer had gone. I was losing my identity,” he remembers throughout an interview with Daily Star Sport. “I can’t live not doing want I want to do. My life spiralled out of control.
“I struggled with it in my personal life, I thought people weren’t going to be accepting of it. I found it very embarrassing as a man because, you know, you could s*** yourself at any point.”
One of Barrett’s largest fears was how it could have an effect on his relationship with ladies.
“The words I said when I went under the knife were, ‘I’m never going to get another blow job again’. That’s genuinely what I was thinking,” he laughs.
Joking apart, Barrett desires to assist take away the stigma related to youthful individuals having colostomy luggage.
“I thought about whether I should tell women about it but I thought ‘no, I ain’t’. If it’s an issue for them, fair enough, but it’s not an issue for me,” declares Barrett, who performed rugby union for Northampton Saints at youth stage and Nottingham.
“I’ve challenged my own acceptance of it. I’m an ex-royal marine and former professional rugby player. If I daren’t go in the gym, how is a normal person who is self-conscious going to be?
“I’ve got an opportunity now to un-f*** myself by forcing myself to do it, thinking it’s going to help someone else, even if it makes me uncomfortable.”
(Image: BKB)
Barrett has even impressed a fellow bare-knuckle warrior, who has an identical situation, to stay with the game.
“Ricardo Franco, who was a champion before me, was in hospital and saw me fight on my debut with a colostomy bag,” he says. “That made him think he could fight with it.
“To my knowledge, it’s only me and Franco who fight with a colostomy bag. And to my knowledge, I’m the only one who’s won a British title with one, because he was a champion before he had one.”
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Barrett is much from the one BKB fighter with a tough backstory. He says getting concerned with the game helped flip his life round. And whereas it seems to be a bloody and brutal sport, he insists boxing intelligent is paramount.
He says: “I don’t know what’s made me carry on, but BKB has been part of it. The changing room is full of people like me, weird people who don’t fit in anywhere.
“Because of my insecurities, I think I’ve got to be tough. But in bare-knuckle boxing, it’s not just about being tough, you’ve got to box. I love it.”
