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Josh Barnett: “The UFC incarnation as it sits doesn’t have as long of a career in MMA as I do”
By Zach Arnold | May 24, 2010
“It’s always a promo. There’s a promo to be cut anywhere I go.”
You have a fight coming up in Australia. Who are you fighting and what’s your feeling heading into the fight?
“I got a fight in Brisbane, Australia for Impact FC against Brazilian cat Geronimo dos Santos… nah, I don’t think he’s related, I think Dos Santos, Silva, whatever, it’s just a kind of nickname you could throw a rock in Brazil and hit one of them, you know what I mean? It’s like a Smith. Impact FC, they say it’s going available on PPV. I have no idea about carriers and blah blah blah, yackety schmackety. All I care is there’s a dude from Brazil that’s going to make this big long flight to Australia and then he’s going to need help getting back on the plane.”
Any comments about your current situation regarding the fallout from the Affliction deal? (The failed drug test)
“Not really.”
Are you excited to get back into active competition?
“Well, you know I fought DREAM 13 against Mighty Mo over in Japan. That was all right, you know… I don’t like kicking anybody in the balls and allowing somebody to kick me in the balls, I just felt it was fair play. I was hoping to fight DREAM 14 at the end of the month (in Saitama), but they couldn’t find anybody to fight me I guess or something, I don’t know, but either way I’m not going over so I did some pro-wrestling for IGF just recently (in Osaka), also in February as well so going pretty steady there. I’m just looking forward to this next deal down in Australia.”
You have an upcoming grappling tournament in Lemoore, CA…
“Well, you know, I was hoping to do the Lemoore one but it falls on the same date as my fight. Pain in the butt. But there’s going to be more and you know sometimes I just don’t want to sit around. I feel like getting out there on the mat and mixing it up with somebody, it’s just another way to stay in shape and be competitive and keep that kind of edge going and you know I got tired of basically being there to coach people and seeing these guys go out and win these tournaments and think, ‘man, that’s guy been at my gym, I crushed that dude, I crushed that guy, I tapped that guy, that guy doesn’t even want to roll with me,’ I just go out here and do it. I mean half the time I don’t even have to train for them.”
The “ghost” of you not fighting in UFC seems to haunt you. What’s your take on fighting outside of the UFC all the time? Do you want to fight in UFC?
“I love to be able to do what I want, how I want, when I want. I mean the UFC incarnation as it sits doesn’t have as long of a career in MMA as I do. I mean, really, if you look at it that way, so they should be washing my laundry and feeding me breakfast in bed just like a good young boy should. You know I don’t care how big they get, you know there’s a seniority thing. But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind fighting for UFC. I don’t mind fighting anywhere. Opportunities are abound and you know it’s not here, then it’s there, then it’s someplace else. Always somebody needing to get their ass kicked.”
What’s coming up for you in the rest of 2010?
“I’m not sure yet. We’re piecing things together as we go. Megumi Fujii, one of my star people, she’s going to be fighting in Bellator here coming up June 10th. Shayna Baszler is going to fight in the finals of the 135 pound female tournament in Oklahoma for Freestyle Cage Fighting. I expect you know gold around her waist by the end of that. And… Shayna Baszler’s also going to compete at the UFC Fan Expo for Grappler’s Quest in a super match against Penny Thomas.”
Who is the most underrated professional wrestler of all time?
“The most underrated professional wrestling of all time… uh…. well in Japan, Alexander Otsuka is one of them I think, for sure. The guy can pull any kind of a match together you can think of and do it flawlessly. He can shine a guy, he can run the whole (match), he’s amazing. I love his work. In America… (long pause) that’s really hard to figure out because usually what I… like one of the guys I don’t think he’s underrated but I love Vader. I think Vader was an amazing wrestler, you know, he could a lot of really great things and when I bring big guys into the business I tell them, hey, watch this guy. This is where you should be pulling a lot of your inspiration from.”
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
“I mean the UFC incarnation as it sits doesn’t have as long of a career in MMA as I do. I mean, really, if you look at it that way, so they should be washing my laundry and feeding me breakfast in bed just like a good young boy should. You know I don’t care how big they get, you know there’s a seniority thing.”
I like this way of thinking.
“Hey, Google! I’m older than you! Give me money!”
“Hey, Microsoft! I’m older than you! Give me stock!”
“Hey, hot chicks! I’m older than you! Massage me!”
This is genius.
It is. It also (partially because the interviewer was terrible) let’s him breeze right past inconvenient facts. Like Cro Cop who waxed him 3 times and Nog who beat him decisively (and got jobbed by decision once) got creamed in UFC.
If he were fighting Junior dos Santos instead of Nobody dos Santos I don’t think he’d be too confident right now.
But all the power to him. I’m sure he’s having fun. Gets to travel a lot and do what he wants to do. If he were in UFC he’d be a gatekeeper. He’d be just like Mir. Talk a huge talk to get hype and occasionally surprise you with a win while being the guy to beat to get your title shot.
@Mr.Roadblock, looks who´s talking. If you want to talk about facts, why mention that Mirko “waxed him three times”? The first fight was anything but a wax job by Mirko. Josh was winning the fight (albeit it was a short one) until he got hurt.
WHAT?!Did you just make an argument that Barnett was WINNING the first fight of about 40 seconds based on one takedown? Are you going to tell me Couture was WINNING the fight versus Belfort the second time until he lost as well?
Jeff, thank you.
A fact I forgot to mention (and I’m not sure how I did) is that what does UFC owe Barnett when he took a dump to the HW title by failing a steroids test and running away.
I find it bizarre that a there are still Barnett marks.
Josh’s next opponent lost twice by stoppage in his last two fights.
the first Barnett-Nog fight was not a bad decision at all. It was a very close fight. Josh is a very talented fighter and it’s a shame American fans don’t get to see him.
Yep. It’s a shame that Josh can’t stay off the roids long enough to fight here. Since he has basically broken the rules enough to prevent him from fighting the top guys I personally think he should be disqualified from any top ranking discussions.
It’s a shame that a THREE time offender in Josh Barnett isn’t banned completely from the sport. That is the only time the words SHAME and Josh Barnett should be used in the same sentence.
It’s funny how there’s no mention of his steroid appeal anymore. “Oh, lol! I got caught for steroids! Totally a mistake here, it will all get sorted when I make my case at the appeal”.
He tested positive THREE TIMES and he’s still maintaining innocence.
The reason he tested positive the 2nd time was probably because they didn’t announce the 1st (they were just trying it out to see if it would be appropriate for MMA). He didn’t know his shit was showing up on tests.
I mean really, the guy could be innocent and I’d feel really bad for him if he was… BUT THREE TIMES!
Weird,
My first thoughts on reading the title were on Josh saying that his career was going to outlast the Zuffa-UFC and then find upon reading he meant something else completely.
Zach,
How do the Japanese view fighters that test positive for steroids, the same or different as they do those that test positive for mj?
This is a difficult question to answer, but a very good one.
In Japanese baseball and other sports, there’s drug testing and they do use stringent testing — so if you fail a test, there’s certainly a level of shame involved.
That said, there is not the broad-based discussion about PEDs in the media in Japan like there is in the US. Even in the MMA media, discussion of PEDs and certain types like Stanozolol is way more detailed than anything you see in the general fight media in Japan.
There are a few test cases in the past about steroids and the way people look at the issue. A couple of the ex-UWF guys admitted that they got steroids and used them in the past and I think most, if not everyone, already forgot or didn’t care. When Chris Benoit had his murderous event, the fight media in Japan ignored it — and wrestlers who had been friends with him for years and years said zero. Guys like Liger, Kanemoto, etc. didn’t even talk. Everyone pulled ranks.
As for Josh, the failed drug test for the Affliction fight against Fedor was the first time that the media really started talking about steroids with him. It was too big for the media to ignore. I’d say that for about half a year the steroid test with an issue for Josh. But since February in Japan, you don’t really hear a lot about it.
And to be fair, they don’t have the sensational media in Japan like in America tossing money at them for interviews. They keep their crazy scandal stories to the tabloids where they belong, they don’t have any Nancy Grace or Bill O’Reilly type “journalist” who would have called them to tell Chris Benoit roid rage horror stories on television. And you’re right, the only New Japan wrestlers who said anything was basically just Scott Norton, and to a much lesser extent, Osamu Nishimura who spoke of the bizarre Dojo conditions to the Ring of Hell author (although most of the crazy stuff was about the FMW dojo. A friend of a friend who trained there said the semen cocktail story wasn’t true for what it’s worth.) There was no “I’ll talk to anybody!” Marc Mero type out of there.