The Steroid-Faced Assassin

The title is a little harsh, but not by much. If you're a hardcore and have not heard the story, you've been living under Mark Hunt's dirty underwear over the last week. Josh Barnett, former UFC heavyweight champion, has tested positive yet again for a banned substance 11 days prior to his showdown with the toughest chubby guy alive, Fedor Emelianenko.

I don't even really know what to say. We were finally going to be given a fight that fans and pundits alike have actually been clamoring for for years, and in less than 2 weeks out from the battle of his life, Barnett gets popped with a positive test by the CSAC. Given I don't know the whole story, and Barnett may have a good, or at least plausible, explanation for the positive, but where there is smoke, there is fire, and where there is fire, there is an ass LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH! (Excuse me, that was uncalled for.)

In any case, the worst of this situation may not even be that we lost a fantastic and relevant heavyweight tilt, but that we have most likely lost another major promotion that was attempting to compete with the Zuffa regime. Fresh off the heels of the Barnett sitch, Affliction announced that they are canceling Trilogy all together and the UFC has brought them back into the fold as a sponsor. What this says to me is that like Kimbo Slice, Josh Barnett has single handedly sunk a major fight promotion. Booooooo!

I respect Josh Barnett tremendously as a fighter. He's a guy that is capable of beating any heavyweight fighter on the planet on any given night, including Fedor. Problem being is that he seems to make bad choices at inopportune times that cost the fans great fights and costs MMA in general some legitimacy. I am no one to judge a professional MMA fighter, but from my POV, Barnett and professional do not go hand in hand. Just my opinion........

-R