Travis Barker’s UFC 324 Debut Rivals 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 drumming sequence at UFC 324 in Las Vegas on January 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” while UFC fight clips played across screens at T-Mobile Arena. The sequence, which featured Barker delivering a narration comparing fighters to rock and punk legends, marked the first UFC event under the promotion’s new $7.7 billion broadcasting deal with Paramount+.

Travis Barker Opens UFC’s Paramount Era with Drumming Performance, Calls It Career-Defining Moment

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

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

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

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 while cameras captured different angles. The experience held deep personal meaning for the longtime UFC fan. “I think I just walked around the octagon probably for five minutes and didn’t say anything to anybody,” Barker recalled. “It was surreal being 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 was like, you know, playing the Grammys with Drake, Lil Wayne and Eminem was pretty awesome, and that is right there with it,” he said. The drummer performed at the 2010 Grammy Awards with those three hip-hop stars in what became one of the ceremony’s most talked-about moments.

Barker emphasized the rarity of the UFC collaborating with musical artists. “I was telling my wife – she’s like, ‘That’s pretty cool, you get to go do that thing.’ I was like, ‘Babe, you don’t understand.’ The UFC doesn’t really, you never really hear about them doing anything with musical artists. They’re really against people walking people out or any kind of performance like this. I was like, ‘Dude, this is unheard of. This is my dream come true.’ There’s nothing tops this. It’s not like afterwards I’m going to be like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to top this.’ There’s no topping it. It’s the best of the best.”​

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

“It was violent right from the get-go,” Barker said of the main event. “The whole card was pretty awesome, but the way they just went out there and just got to it right away – they just banged right from the start. It was pretty exciting, which I imagined it would be.

“I knew that’s what Gaethje would do, but to see Paddy just sit there and trade with him the whole fight when he has so many other skills and tools in his skill set – it was admirable. I thought Paddy might try to shoot on him or wrestle earlier, but he stood and banged with him, and I got to say, it’s probably the most exciting fight I’ve been to in person. I’ve been to 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 fun. He surprises me every time,” he said.​

Massive MMA Fan

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

“I hate going to sleep and watching 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’ll hit me with updates all the time, so if I’m not watching it real time, the news is going to be spoiled somehow. There’s something about not watching it in real time that’s not exciting. I like watching everyone’s walkout, I like listening to everyone commentating during the fight – that’s honestly what I kind of miss when I’m at fights.”​

Barker also confirmed his habitual listening to The Ariel Helwani Show. “Yes, I listen religiously. MMA and the UFC and boxing, really everything, it’s like an escape from music for me. I’m obsessed. I listen to every episode. I usually fall asleep to it because it’s not something I need to watch and pay attention to a storyline – I can just listen until I fall asleep and then I’ll usually wake up and pick up where I left off if I end up falling asleep. I love your guys’ podcast, I love your show, I love all your boys’ shows, I love all the post-show podcasts you guys do. Everything. It’s amazing.”​

Beyond watching fights, Barker trains Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Jean Jacques Machado at a gym near his home. “Jean Jacques Machado has a spot right down the street from me and I would always run by his gym and I ran into him at the coffee spot I go to all the time and I just rolled in one day and started training again,” Barker said.

The training sessions are intensive. “I do privates with him – we’ll do hour-and-a-half, two-hour sessions and he’s right down the street, so it can work with my schedule at the studio,” he explained. When asked to choose between jiu-jitsu and boxing, Barker emphasized the value of both. “Jiu-jitsu is such a mental game where you have to do a lot of thinking and remembering, and then striking and explosiveness and fast twitch, fast trigger is really important for drumming. So I need both, honestly.”

Barker’s involvement in the UFC dates back years. He has attended numerous events and previously sponsored fighters including two-time bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame during the UFC 324 broadcast. “Dom’s been one of my close friends for I don’t know 10 15 years,” Barker said. “I used to let him stay at my house when he was having surgeries out in LA. And we sponsored I sponsored him through his whole rivalry with Uriah Faber.”