Travis Barker’s UFC 324 Debut Competes With Grammy Moment, Says Blink-182 Drummer “Dream Come True”

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker kicked off the UFC’s transition to Paramount+ with a monologue and drum sequence at UFC 324 in Las Vegas on Jan. 24, cementing what he described as one of the most memorable experiences of his career.​​

The 50-year-old musician opened the broadcast by performing Blink-182’s “Feeling This” as UFC fight clips played on the screens at T-Mobile Arena. The series, in which Barker delivered a story comparing fighters to rock and punk legends, marked the first UFC event under the new $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount+.

Travis Barker opens UFC’s Paramount era with drumming performance, calling it a career-defining moment

Barker filmed the entire sequence in the octagon between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., about 15 hours before the preliminary fighting began. Speaking on the Ariel Helwani Show two days after the event, the drummer revealed that the project came together quickly after initial contact in November 2025.​

“Around November of last year, one of my friends, Neil Law, who works at WWE and TKO, said, ‘You know, UFC is going to be in LA in January,’” Barker explained. “I said, ‘Say less, I’ll probably be there, that’s my hometown.’ He says, ‘Well, I was talking to the UFC and we were all talking to each other and we thought it would be cooler to do something bigger with you to start the new year with Paramount.’​

The opportunity seized Barker overwhelmed. “I really thought they were going to say, ‘Can you come, are you there?’ I never thought it was this,” he said. “Then they say, ‘No, no, no, we have this whole idea, we’re going to present it to you.’ They presented it to me and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is a dream come true.’ It all came together very quickly.”​

How a lifelong UFC obsessive finally got his dream: Travis Barker on Paramount’s historic debut

During the all-night filming session, Barker played the musical piece 30 to 40 times as cameras captured different angles. The experience had deep personal meaning for the longtime UFC fan. “I think I probably walked around the octagon for five minutes and didn’t say anything to anyone,” Barker recalled. “It was surreal to be in there.”

When asked to compare the experience to other career highlights, Barker placed it at the top. “Someone else asked me that and I thought, you know, playing the Grammys with Drake, Lil Wayne and Eminem was pretty awesome, and that’s just what it is,” he said. The drummer performed with these three hip-hop stars at the 2010 Grammy Awards, which became one of the most talked-about moments of the ceremony.

Barker emphasized the rarity of the UFC collaborate with music artists. “I told my wife, she said, ‘That’s pretty cool, you get to do that thing.’ I thought, ‘Honey, you don’t understand.’ Not really the UFC, you never really hear of them doing anything with music artists. They are really against people walking people or any kind of action. I was like, ‘Dude, this is unheard of. This is my dream come true.” There’s nothing that beats this. It’s not like I say afterwards: ‘Yes, I’m going to top this.’ There is no winner. It’s the best of the best.”

Barker remained focused on the fighting itself. The Paramount debut featured an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett, created while he was undisputed champion. Ilia Topuria deals with personal issues. Gaethje won by unanimous decision after five rounds, with the judges scoring the fight 49-46, 49-46, 48-47.

“It was violent from the start,” Barker said of the main event. “The whole card was pretty amazing, but the way they just went there and started working with it right away – they were right from the start. It was pretty exciting, what I had imagined.

“I knew Gaethje would do that, but to see Paddy just sit there and trade with him for the entire fight, when he has so many other skills and tools in his skill set, was admirable. I thought Paddy would try to shoot him or wrestle him before, but he got up and punched him, and I have to say, it’s probably the most exciting fight I’ve personally experienced. I’ve been through a lot. That main event was incredible, such a great main event.”

Barker praised Pimblett’s performance despite the loss. “Paddy’s walkouts are so good. He’s so much fun. He surprises me every time,” he said.

Huge MMA fan

The drummer’s UFC fandom runs deep. Barker revealed that he watches every UFC event in real time, even while on tour with Blink-182. “I hide my phone when I’m on stage – I’m not on my phone while I’m on stage – but I watch the prelims and until I’m warming up and practicing, then I stay at the venue and just finish the fights. I never miss a fight,” he explained.​

“I hate going to sleep and looking at 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’s constantly giving me updates, so if I don’t watch it in real time, the news gets spoiled somehow. There’s something about not watching in real time that isn’t exciting. I like watching everyone strike, I like listening to everyone commentating during the fight – that’s honestly what I miss when I’m in fights.”​

Barker also confirmed his usual listening to The Ariel Helwani show. “Yes, I listen religiously. MMA and the UFC and boxing, basically everything, it’s an escape from the music for me. I’m obsessed. I listen to every episode. I usually fall asleep to it because it’s not something I have to watch and pay attention to a storyline. I can just listen until I fall asleep and then I usually wake up and pick up where I left off when I finally fall asleep. I love your guys’ podcast, I love your show, I love all your guys’ shows, I love all the post show podcasts you guys do

In addition to watching fights, Barker also trains Brazilians jiu-jitsu with Jean Jacques Machado at a gym near his home. “Jean Jacques Machado has a place down the street and I used to run by his gym and I ran into him at the coffee shop I went to all the time and I came in one day and started working out again,” Barker said.

The training is intensive. “I do private sessions with him – we do one-and-a-half or two-hour sessions and he’s just down the street, so it can work with my schedule in the studio,” he explained. When asked to choose between jiu-jitsu and boxing, Barker emphasized the value of both. “Jiu-jitsu is one of those mental games where you have to think and remember a lot, and then striking and explosiveness and fast twitch, quick triggers are very important for drumming. So honestly, I need both.”

Barker’s involvement with the UFC dates back many years. He has attended numerous events and previously sponsored fighters, including a two-time bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame during the broadcast of UFC 324. “Dom has been one of my good friends for 10 or 15 years,” Barker said. “I used to let him stay at my house when he had surgeries in LA. And we sponsored, I sponsored him during his whole rivalry with Uriah Faber.”