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Barnett: No fight in place for HERO’s
By Zach Arnold | May 1, 2007
By Zach Arnold
In a direct conversation with Josh Barnett on Tuesday, he stated that the reports of him fighting Sergey Kharitonov at the Dynamite event at the LA Coliseum on June 2nd are not true. Barnett further stated that there is no verbal or written agreement for him having a fight against Kharitonov at that event.
Topics: HERO's, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I am actually really happy. I hope to see Josh in Pride,UFC, Bodog, or Pancrase. I don’t think he fits in with the rest of the Heroes line up or with what K1 is trying to do. He belongs competing against top fighters in a mma organization that takes itslef seriously.
That was one of the fights that I was interested in seeing. Probably won’t be buying that PPV now.
I agree that it would be better to see Josh in Pride/UFC. There is too much talent in that Heavyweight pool compared to anywhere else.
He busted his hump through 2006 to get a chance to fight for the Pride Heavyweight belt … now with Nog and Crocop gone, he’s next in line to challenge Fedor for the belt. There’s no way in hell he’s going anywhere.
Josh plays his cards right, he could be UFC champ again someday earning mega PPV paydays. Who the heck knows what, if anything, will happen with PRIDE in the future, but what I see is that IMO Barnett matches up pretty damn well against most UFC HWs.
He’s arguably #2 or #3 heavyweight in the world, so he matches up pretty well against almost anyone 🙂
People who think that Josh is going to get any kind of shot either in UFC or Pride don’t understand Dana White and the fact that Josh’s steroid use when the UFC was just becoming legal hurt them. Josh needs to take this fight with the K1 Dynamite !! USA show, because otherwise he has no “mma home” where will he go? Back to Pankrase ?
I love Josh and wish him well. I hope he wins more fights.
I don’t think Josh knows where Josh is going to be fighting next. I think that he is as unsure of the whole Pride/UFC merger as alot of fans are.
Amos: Dana claimed in an interview that the door is open for Josh to fight for UFC. Honestly I think its up to Josh whether or not he wants to go through the process of proving he’s cleaned up to the evil NSAC.
He already went through the NSAC process when he fought Nastula on the 10/21/06 show…
Adding Barnett to the UFC roser could be a good move for American Audiences and PPV buys. With the right promotion and marketing, Zuffa can use his likeness similar to what they’ve done with Couture.
Plus, if you populate a heavyweight division with too many foreigners, there’s a possibility the UFC may alienate their money making fan base (Middle-America). Whether you like it or not, mainstream audiences will tend to cheer for a countryman and a personality that’s likable.