To put it simple, the man the fight game calls, “Brutal,” is on a mission. After being out of action for over 24 months, Brendan Barrett comes back to Ring of Combat to defend his heavyweight title.

When we last saw Brendan “Brutal” Barrett, he was successfully defending his title for the sixth time against Justin Woods with a second round TKO at ROC 48. During the fight, Barrett suffered a hand injury that would keep him on the sidelines for a bit. Never one that can sit still for too long, Barrett turned his attention to the world of promotions.

Under the promotion company, History In The Making (HITM), Barrett has promoted a few professional boxer cards and even carries a professional boxing record of 4-0-2. With a professional MMA record of 10-5-1 and the current reigning ROC heavyweight, why such a drive for professional boxing? “I started boxing for MMA and really just gravitated towards it.” For promoting boxing, “I see the history of boxing like Ali vs Frazier and seeing how the world stopped and that’s is what drew me into boxing.”

Now with boxing aside, Barrett has his attention sent on September 23rd at the Tropicana Atlantic City New Jersey for Ring of Combat 56. “Training has been great! I travel to get what I need for strength and conditioning along with sparring. I am in Cape Cod now but will finish up camp in New York.”

Standing across from Barrett will be Shelton Graves (4-3). “I am very familiar with Graves. I gave him advice when he lost at ROC in the past.” When asked what kind of fight to expect, Barrett was blunt, “Graves is coming to fight! He’s a tough, big guy and he’s coming to fight!”

When the fight was made, Graves actually reached out to Barrett via Facebook, “He’s very respectful and sent me a facebook message that he asked Lou for the title shot. He said he respected me. You don’t see that kind of old school martial arts respect. I congratulated him and said it would be honor to share cage with him.”

Barrett plans to make this an action packed fight where he’ll create the openings. “I try not to think of how fight will play out. I take it as it comes and implement my game plan and take any openings I see.

The brutal one closed with this, “Two big guys in there and this is the fight of the opportunity for him and could launch his career. EXPECT some fireworks!