Barnett: Browne is a disrespectful f@%&in’ pr!$%

The great Josh Barnett appeared on the great JRE for, astonishingly, a great interview.

The Warmaster has been fighting for 17 years, and concedes it is harder to get up for a fight. He grapples Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu on May 9 at Metamoris 6, and hopes to get a fight with Roy Nelson scheduled. However, the loss to Travis Browne at UFC 168 on December 28, 2013 does not sit well. The #6 ranked heavyweight has not fought since.

“I wasn’t into my last fight, to be honest,” said Barnett as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting.com. “I didn’t care. I just wasn’t ‘up’ for it. I trained and it got to a point where I was just like, ‘I’m over this. Who is [Travis Browne]? If I beat him, what does that do? Then I get to fight another guy and another guy? Where am I going with this?’ I’m not going to climb this f—ing ladder to prove that I deserve to fight for a title. I can fight for a title against anyone in any league, anywhere, anytime. F—in’, I’m a world championship level guy.

“I don’t need to prove that I belong here. I fought ‘Travis Browne’s’ all my career. They just had a different name at a different point in life. They had the same type of skillset. They’re basically the same type of guy. There will be another Travis Brown when Travis Browne is done being Travis Browne.”

“If I fought Travis now, I’d want to take his f—ing head off. He disrespected me in the ring after the match, all this s—. He f—ing cut his throat, he did all this stuff. That’s my thing. He did it to mock me for winning.

“I’m just like, ‘Dude, I’ve been nice to you and respectful to you from day one. You go ahead and get a win on me, great, this is your moment to say what you want to say and what you want to do is try to f—in’ put me down after you win?”

“Me? I don’t have any reason to be a f—ing prick, especially after I win. But, you know what, a guy wins, he feels like he’s on top of the world, that’s when you’re going to say some s— like that, when you’re going to act out.

“If that’s the way it’s going to be, awesome. If we rematch it’s not going to be the same dude you fought that night. You have no idea. You really don’t get it. You will get your ass handed to you because now you gave me a reason to want to kick your ass.”

“I would make him pay for all the big mistakes he makes all the time. He’s constantly whiffing, throwing the biggest shot. That kid has no stamina because he will always go for the kill in everything he does. Now, that makes him very dangerous to a heavyweight, because he’s athletic and has some power. But that’s why [Fabricio Werdum] took him out. He’s missing with all his big s— and he’s getting picked apart and picked apart and hung on and hung on and grabbed and separated and picked apart.

“I mean, why is Werdum beating you on the feet? He’s trying to swing for the fences constantly. That’s why he’s gassed in every one of his big fights. Any fight that’s got any distance to it, he’s gassed. Why? Because that’s the type of fighter he is. Does that make him a bad fighter? Not necessarily. I would say it doesn’t. It’s just, that’s who he is. But that’s also why I think he will never be a UFC champion because there’s a finesse that he doesn’t possess.”