Notorious football hooligan One Eyed Baz once fought Vitali Klitschko in MMA

dailystar.co.uk:

MMA encounter.Baz’s wife Tracy, who he worked on homelessness charity projects with, announced the reformed hooligan's sudden passing on Twitter today, revealing that he had suffered from a “massive heart attack” aged 56.Baz – whose full name was Barrington Patterson – was blinded in one eye as a seven-year-old, before going on to become a member of the infamous Zulus.The group of football hooligans represented Birmingham City at home and away games, often clashing with rival firms in the streets outside stadiums during the height of football violence during the 1980s.As well as scrapping on the terraces, Baz forged a career as a professional fighter after being introduced to semi-contact karate, and spoken about his sporting career on the James English Anything Goes podcast in late 2019.Baz became increasingly successful in the sport, and was frequently booked for fights in Holland before he was introduced to mixed martial arts.“I went home and looked at the video and there was stamping on them on the floor and kicking and punching them on the floor, and I thought ‘yeah, I’ll have a go at this’,” he said.

After quickly finding his feet in the octagon, Baz was offered the chance to compete at an international level, where he found himself up against one of the greatest ever boxers. “In 1995, I fought in the world championships in Ukraine,” he recalled. “I got to the final, I think I probably had two or three fights that day, and they said to me, ‘you’re fighting on the next day’."But, when he went to relax, Barrington revealed that he was woken up and told to fight immediately or risk being thrown out of the competition.And, with little warm-up time, he said that he was shocked by who he was confronted with on the.