"I'd hurt him. I knew it. I could feel it. When he was down, I could see his eyes were gone."
It was moment that will always remain with Barrie Jones. After just 15 seconds under the lights of Miami's James L.Knight Center, the father-of-two from Ferndale became a star on the global stage.
The footage of his incredible knockout against American fighter Luiz Melo has helped make the roofer and former doorman a firm favourite in what is arguably fastest growing sport in the world. You can watch it here. Indeed bareknuckle boxing has come a long way in dispelling the stereotypes of gangsters, boozers, and tattooed brawlers engaging in bloody anarchic violence. OK, the last one is still kind of true.
READ MORE: Welshman becomes sporting sensation in US
But this is a sport that is also cutting a sleek, modern image. Buying into the wave created by the success of MMA, it is capturing the imagination of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. As it happens, Barrie, a double British champion, is one of its biggest stars.
"I want to see him again. He really exploded onto the scene," said Paulie Malignaggi, the former two-weight boxing champion, who once fought Ricky Hatton, shortly after the man known as the Welsh Wrecking Machine showed off his stuff to such devastating effect.
“Melo is known as a durable guy and Barrie Jones just evaporated him."
High praise indeed, but Jones is about to face arguably his toughest test yet on Sunday night. The Welshman is set to step out at the Indigo at London's O2 to take on Jimmy Sweeney, who is, pound for pound, considered the best bareknuckle fighter in the world. There's a world title on the line too - just to keep it interesting.
I meet him upstairs at his gym in Pontygwaith, a setting that in all honesty does little to dispel any preconceptions around this sport. Weights and punchbags of varying denominations and brands are scattered around, squares of spare carpet are stacked up against the wall. There's a cycling machine that carries enough rust to suggest it's a few years my senior. The casing for the plugs is hanging off the wall, and for reasons I'm a little too nervous to ascertain, there are a couple of replica samurai swords.
"My friend does self-defence classes here," Jones explains after noticing my glances at the fake weapons. He pulls up an empty Erdinger keg before sitting down for our chat. It's quite an intimidating setting on its own, even before you throw in the presence of a man seemingly so dangerous. And yet, Jones, by his own admission is actually quite shy. He fidgets like a naughty child being told off by a headteacher.
In the ring, it's clearly a different story, of course, but then a growing up in the Rhondda, an area with a rich and proud boxing heritage, he's been well-versed in the art of throwing a punch since the age of eight. "My older brothers were both into boxing," he says. "So it was pretty natural for me to go to the gym too. I loved it. I did my first fight when I was 10 and not looked back since".
As a teenager, Jones was an accomplished boxer at amateur level, and even had ambitions of becoming an Olympian before picking up a hand injury while sparring ahead of the European Championships. After turning pro back in 2004 at the age of 19, he went on to enjoy a strong start to his professional career, winning his first 15 bouts.
But after suffering a number of defeats, followed by a short break from the sport in 2012, he felt like he'd lost his drive as a boxer, eventually choosing to hang up his gloves for good in 2015.
"I'd had enough. I jacked in boxing for two or three years [before BKB]," he explains.
"But I still missed it. Watching boys fighting for titles that I used to spar with. But I had my chances and I didn't take them.
"I was p***** off with myself, because I went in and lost to people I should have been beating easily really.
"It got to a point where I didn't care if I won or lost, I was just doing it for the money. I was still in the gym, but I wasn't training the way I should have been training.
"I lost the edge a little bit I suppose. Once you lose that there's no going back. A lot of the time I was going out to lose.
"Perhaps I needed that big fight to motivate me. There was talk about me fighting Liam Williams years ago. I didn't know much about it, but that didn't happen. Bradley Pryce would have been a big fight in Wales, but that didn't come off."
That said, there are a still few big names dotted around Barrie's boxing record. Indeed, amid the run of defeats that so dented his enthusiasm for the sport was a loss to Kell Brook in 2014. Brook would of course later go on to become IBF welterweight champion and establish himself as a superstar of British boxing. It was a fight that perhaps sharpened Barrie's perspective on his own career.
"I was thinking about Kell the other day actually when he was fighting Khan," he laughs. "I was never really in that fight. I took it at short notice. I'd just come back from Turkey on holiday with my girlfriend. I had the phone call and had about three weeks to train for it. Ten hard days to train.
"I was trying to hold on until the last couple of rounds, and then maybe see if I could take him in the later rounds, but I just couldn't get going. I should have gone for it, or maybe pulled out. I didn't realise at the time just how good he was."
It perhaps sounds maddening to an outsider, but bareknuckle boxing has presented something of a second chance for Barrie, who clearly couldn't cut the cord between him and the ring. Once a fighter, always a fighter, after all.
"I was still training, but I was drinking and stuff, so in my head I was finished," he said. "So when I saw BKB, I got in touch with somebody and decided to find out what it was all about and then before I knew it, I had a contract. I didn't really have a chance to think about it, but it was probably the best thing I've ever done.
"I saw this as my second go at being in the ring. The titles are probably not as prestigious as boxing titles, but they're still an achievement to show the kids.
"It turns out that actually I still loved boxing. It's something I've done all my life. I know this isn't boxing but it's the closest thing for me."
Then again, all the experience in the world couldn't prepare him for the brutal reality of what he was about to walk into. His first fight against Liam Cullen back in 2018 clearly sparked a few doubts. "The first time I went up there, it was all new to me again. I'd been around boxing all my life but you see some of the guys coming back and some of the injuries they've got, with the horrible cuts and everything and you think 'f***ing hell'."
Some of the injuries picked up by fighters can admittedly be stomach churning. Fellow Welshman Dorian Darch recently saw his bid for BKB heavyweight glory ended due to a horrific cut just under his eye. You can read more about that here.
"It's brutal. Very brutal," Barrie admits. "My first fight actually only lasted 10 seconds. But they're not all going to go like that. It's hard. At the end of the you get punched in the face with no gloves on.
"It hurts. It hurts a lot more than boxing. Just because you're a boxer, you can't come into it thinking, I'm going to beat these boys. Some of these guys are tough. Street fighters. We've had good boxers coming into this and they've had one or two fights and decided they don't fancy it.
"It looks worse than boxing because of all the cuts and the blood, but all the fights so far have been good. So far, so good."
Luckily, with an impressive record of six wins out of six, Barrie tends to be the one inflicting most of the damage when he steps into the ring as a certain Mr Melo would testify. The chance to strut his stuff in America, and enjoy all the glamour that comes with it, is a perk Barrie never quite got to enjoy during his boxing career, so it's perhaps easy to see why this career path, despite its brutality, holds some appeal.
"He had about two stone on me," he says. "When I was going out there, they were all talking about how tough and durable he was. I was a bit worried then. And the ring. They have a triangle ring there so there wasn't much space to move around.
"So I was just hoping to not get caught in the corners, and because he was so tough, I didn't want to get in a scrap with him. My gameplan was to just use my skill a bit. Jab his head off a bit.
"You start in the middle of the ring. And he just started swinging, so I caught him early with a left. It was a good result in the end. An amazing trip too. It's not that often you get to go to somewhere like Miami."
As one of the biggest players in this sport, Barrie clearly has no problems in spearheading its increasing popularity. Anyone who has ever witnessed a fight night in America knows just how special they can be.
It feels like bareknuckle boxing is crawling out of the seedy underworld of pub backrooms and car parks, undergoing its own form of manifest destiny. Stepping into the bright lights of a land where everything is bigger, more dramatic, and the opportunities are plentiful. It feels like the inevitable next step for fighters like Barrie. Then again, at the age of 36, he's clearly taking little for granted. At the moment, he's clearly happy to just be enjoying the ride.
