Let me be the first to say that anyone who purchased non-refundable airfare for Affliction: Trilogy should automatically be comped by M-1 Global and (or) Josh Barnett when Fedor Emelianenko vs Josh Barnett finally goes down. Look at that poster. A permanent tease of something that would have gone down as one of the greatest cards in MMA history. Most of have heard the story, but for the handful who got into MMA when Kimbo Slice joined TUF, let me give you a brief rundown.
Josh Barnett was caught juicing up with a performance enhancing substances known as steroids just before Affliction III. Josh didn’t really have the sure signs of roid use like ‘Backne‘ and shrunken testicles (Do you want to look down there? I’ll take his word for it). Believe it or not, it was actually Josh’s third time being caught using steroids in his career (back in 2002 he was caught by the Nevada Athletic Commission for juicing up. He still denies it to this day). But hey, how can you blame Barnett for trying every possible chemically enhanced technique when he was scheduled to go toe to toe with The Last Emperor? When Fedor misses an overhand right, he hurts the atmosphere.
Since then, Affliction collapsed and Josh Barnett had been keeping a relatively low profile and, at every available opportunity, he effortlessly clowns guys in grappling tournaments. When the this era of MMA history is composed in some stuffy book a top a massive bookshelf at the public library, Josh Barnett will be credited for single-handedly popularizing catch-wrestling in MMA.
This morning, Strikeforce sent a press release that Josh Barnett has signed with the organization. Still no word on who his first opponent will be, but I think we may have found the solution to the whole Fedoreem drama. Great move by Strikeforce.
