Former UFC heavyweight Pat Barry to make GLORY kickboxing debut in May

Pat Barry's GLORY kickboxing debut is set.

The former UFC heavyweight fighter will meet Zack Mwekassa in a heavyweight contender tournament reserve bout on May 3 at GLORY 16 in Broomfield, CO, the promotion announced Tuesday.

Barry left the UFC in January to pursue, once again, a career in kickboxing. He left kickboxing in 2007 with an 15-5-1 record and then moved over to MMA, where he went 8-7 as a pro and 5-7 inside the Octagon.

"Wrestling, doing jiu-jitsu for the sake of doing jiu-jitsu? It's great, especially with the gi on," he said on a recent episode of The MMA Hour. "Especially with the gi on. It's fun, I enjoy it, I think it's great. It's great exercise. Everything. But when it comes to being in a fight, I've just never... na, no thank you, man. I want to stand there, I want to hit each other, and let's just see who's got the biggest nuts in the ring. That's what I wanted."

Before making his GLORY debut, Barry will make his official return to kickboxing at the World Kickboxing Association - Combat Sports Challenge 39 event in Richmond, Va., this Saturday against Ed Burris.

His opponent, Mwekassa, will also be making his promotional debut on May 3. He's 10-0 as a kickboxer and 14-4 as a boxer.

Below is a look at the entire main card, which will air live on Spike TV from the 1stBank Center.

Tournament Final Bout C: Semifinal Bout A Winner vs. Semifinal Bout B Winner
Welterweight World Title Bout: Nieky Holzken vs. Marc de Bonte
Tournament Reserve Bout: Pat Barry vs. Zack Mwekassa
Tournament Semifinal Bout B: Anderson Silva vs. Sergey Kharitonov
Tournament Semifinal Bout A: Ben Edwards vs. Errol Zimmerman