Travis Barker’s UFC debut was bigger than anything he’s ever done, including playing alongside some pretty big names at the Grammys.
Best known as the drummer for popular punk band Blink 182, Barker delivered the opening monologue for UFC 324 on Saturday, the promotion’s first event as part of a new seven-year deal with Paramount Plus. As fight clips played across screens inside a packed T-Mobile Arena, Barker belted out the group’s critically acclaimed track ‘Feeling This’ from the center of the Octagon.
On Monday, Barker spoke with Ariel Helwani to discuss the instantly iconic intro and what it felt like to play one of his band’s most popular songs on MMA’s biggest stage.
“Someone else asked me that, and I was like, you know, playing the Grammys with Drake, Lil Wayne, and Eminem was pretty awesome, and that is right there with it,” Barker told Helwani. “I was telling my wife – she’s like, ‘That’s pretty cool, you get to go do that thing.’ I was like, ‘Babe, you don’t understand.’ The UFC doesn’t really; you never really hear about them doing anything with musical artists.
“They’re really against people walking people out or any kind of performance like this. I was like, ‘Dude, this is unheard of. This is my dream come true.’ There’s nothing that tops this. It’s not like afterwards I’m going to be like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to top this.’ There’s no topping it. It’s the best of the best.”
“I’m hiding my phone if I’m on stage – I’m not on my phone while I’m on stage – but I’m watching prelims and up to the minute I’m just warming up and practicing watching it, and then I’ll stay after at the venue and just finish the fights,” Barker continued. “I never miss a fight. I hate going to sleep and watching it the next day. I can’t do that because you’ll see something somewhere.
“One of my best friends is a doctor, and he’ll hit me with updates all the time, so if I’m not watching it in real time, the news is going to be spoiled somehow. There’s something about not watching it in real time that’s not exciting. I like watching everyone’s walkout, I like listening to everyone commentating during the fight – that’s honestly what I kind of miss when I’m at fights.”
Barker also revealed that he filmed the intro in the middle of the night, performing the musical piece upwards of 40 times while cameras caught him from multiple angles.
“I think I just walked around the Octagon probably for five minutes and didn’t say anything to anybody,” Barker said. “It was surreal being in there.”
