I know, I know, the whole MMA community knows! Josh Barnett failed a few drug tests over his 13 year career! Big effin' deal! If we are all going to be honest here, Josh is far from the only mixed martial artist who has juiced at points in their career. To believe that he is the only one is total ignorance and an outright denial of reality. A better reason to hate him is because he's dumb; dumb enough to get caught, unlike a lot of other fighters, some of whom are your favorites. Yes, the truth hurts sometimes!
The other overwhelming gripe against Josh, and the main reason that seems to fuel the hatred towards him, is that his last batch of dirty piss caused the demise of the Affliction promotion. How anyone can believe that for a second is beyond me! I guess the ungodly, astronomic, undeserved salaries they were paying fighters had nothing to do with them pulling the gates down? Paying Tim Sylvia 750K for a fight had nothing to do with their demise, right? With the way Tom Atencio and Affliction were hemorrhaging cash at the time, I would venture to say they were ecstatic about the turn of events that led to them shutting down. I wouldn't be surprised if Atencio sent Barnett a big, fat thank you letter. Ultimately, in the long run, Josh ended up saving Tom and Affliction a whole bunch of dough! They were looking for an exit from promoting fights, and "the Baby Faced Assassin" gave them the perfect excuse to shut it down. Affliction's business model was horrendous. They could never have maintained operations spending money the way they were. That company was doomed from the get go. Josh was far from the reason for their failure. I will have to admit though, that I am still pissed at Barnett for killing the dream fight with Fedor that I was waiting forever to see. Maybe one day? We can wish, can't we?
If you objectively look at Barnett's career, you can't not be very impressed. He currently has a 25-5 record over the span of 13 years. He has to be on the short list of pioneers of the sport who are still active. And he's ONLY 33 years old. Not many people can boast of having wins over the likes of Big Nog, Randy Couture, Mark Hunt, Aleksander Emelianenko, Hidehiko Yoshida, Semmy Schilt (twice), Pedro Rizzo, Dan Severn, Jeff Monson, Gilbert Yvel and Mighty Mo, amongst others. That's a virtual who's who of the international MMA heavyweight landscape over the last 10 plus years. His 2 Pride fights with Big Nog are legendary. Three of his losses were to Mirko Cro Cop, when Mirko was at his absolute best. One of those was the result of a shoulder injury incurred during the fight. Of his other 2 losses, one was a decision loss to Big Nog, during his prime, and the other was to Pedro Rizzo, who was also in his prime at the time. Pedro is the only person to ever knock Josh out and that was way back in early 2001 at UFC 30. He returned the favor to Rizzo by KOing him in their rematch in 2008. Let's recap; in 30 fights Barnett has only lost 5 times (1 KO, 2 subs, 2 decisions) and to only 3 fighters, over the course of 13 years. If that doesn't positively impress you, I don't know what would!
There's no denying Josh's skillset. He is very capable in all facets of MMA. His stand-up game is very solid, his wrestling is excellent and his submission game is off the charts by heavyweight standards. His inclusion of the rarely used system of catch wrestling makes him a very formidable and dangerous opponent for ANY heavyweight on the planet. On top of that, he is a very athletic 250 pounder. Unless you forgot, it wasn't that long ago that Barnett was a top 5 HW on almost all rankings, and was sitting comfortably at the #2 spot for quite a while. Now we have fighters like Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, who have a combined 13 fights between them, suddenly sitting at or near the top of these same rankings. I can guarantee you, neither of those guys would be at all happy about having to fight Josh. Trust me on that!
Just announced today, Josh will be getting back in action. He is signed to fight in July, in Australia, at the inaugural event for new promotion, Impact MMA. His opponent is Brazilian Geronimo “Mondragon” dos Santos. The highly touted Mondragon was on the verge of being signed by the UFC before a lackluster performance at a recent Jungle Fight event changed their mind. He was on an 8 fight winning streak prior to that fight which included a 1st round TKO over UFC veteran Assuerio Silva. Josh spoke about Mondragon saying, “He is experienced and very good on the ground. I’ll try to keep this fight standing. I’ll go for the knockout, I’m going to win this fight!” I believe him.
I seem to be in the minority of MMA geeks who is and always will be a fan of Barnett. I would love to see him sign to Strikeforce and fight again on a regular basis, on American soil. Sure, Josh might be a bit cocky and come across arrogant at times, but so do a lot of other fighters. Its almost part of the DNA of any successful sportsman. There's nothing wrong with being confident. You will never hear Josh badmouth any other fighters and he always shows his fellow competitors the utmost respect. He is a true student and historian of the sport. You'd be hard pressed to find another fighter as knowledgeable on MMA as Josh is.
So, why all the hate?!? Josh Barnett is a good dude, and a very talented mixed martial artist. He is good for the sport regardless of a few dirty piss tests. Talent like his doesn't come around very often. As fans of MMA, he deserves our respect and support!
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