Pat Barry signs with GLORY kickboxing, but hasn't fully retired from MMA

Weeks after his first-round knockout loss to Soa Palelei at UFC Fight Night 33 on Dec. 7, 2013 -- his second straight defeat -- Pat Barry revealed that he would be walking away from mixed martial arts (MMA).

The reason?

He didn't want to wrestle around with guys, he wanted to hit them.

But during his recent appearance on The MMA Hour, "HD" revealed that he wasn't going to retire from MMA, but rather, take a break from it after being granted his release from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

He explains:

"I'm walking away from MMA for now. It said I was retiring from MMA and people assumed that I was done with fighting forever and that was going to be the end of it. But, it's not, that's not what happened. I'm just taking a break, taking a timeout from MMA. Just stepping away from it, man. My last few fights, something was missing. Something wasn't there, was a bit of love and attraction to wrestling and grappling to having to defend take-downs. Which is fine, that's part of the sport and that's what I signed up for, but my last two outings that I had, anytime you lose a fight and get up and say, 'I lost, oh well, so what.' It wasn't so much, 'so what,' something wasn't there."

Clearing up his "wrestling" comments, Barry says it's not that he doesn't like wrestling or jiu-jitsu, he just prefers to stand-and-bang.

His words:

"Wrestling, doing jiu-jitsu for the sake of doing jiu-jitsu, that's great, especially with a gi on, I enjoy it, it's great exercise, everything. But when it comes to being in a fight, no thank you. I want to stand and hit each other and let's see who has the biggest nuts in the ring."

Furthermore, Pat says the fact that kickboxing had a resurrection of sorts, helped make his decision to walk away from MMA and look into the possibility of returning to his first love.

Which is exactly what he'll be doing, as Barry revealed he has signed on with GLORY -- the world's leading kickboxing promotion -- and will make his debut with the promotion in May, against an opponent to be named.

But first, "HD" will participate in the WKA North American Championship kickboxing tournament on Mar. 22, 2014, in Richmond, Virginia. At the moment, he does not have an opponent, as his scheduled foe backed out of the proposed fight.

Anyone think Barry can find the success in the kickboxing ring that alluded him in his last few outings inside an MMA cage?