Barnett: I don’t think Brock will show improvement
Josh Barnett: “Being out of it as long as he has, I don’t think he’s going to be stepping into the cage a better fighter than he was when he left.”
When rumors surfaced that former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar was returning to the Octagon, former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, The Warmaster explained why.
“I wanted it because he’s a professional wrestler and so I am,” said Barnett, as transcribed by Hunter A. Homistek for MMA Fighting. “I wanted it because after five fights, they tried to say he was the No. 1 heavyweight in the world, which I thought was insulting to all of us. Not that he wasn’t talented, not that he didn’t have the potential to be far better than he ever was able to really show out there with such a young career, but it just felt like utter and absolute propaganda, and it was upsetting that there were media outlets that were supposed to be top of the pops that bought it.”
“And then there’s also the fact that he had an open invitation to come to CSW and train with us all the time in between fights and to prepare and grow as a fighter and never took us up on it, never came out, never seemed to take the time in between his fights to become a much better fighter. And I felt like, ‘Well, that was part of the reason his last couple fights went the way they did.’
“I don’t know what he’s done from then until now, but being out of it as long as he has, I don’t think he’s going to be stepping into the cage a better fighter than he was when he left.”
“If he doesn’t like to get hit, that’s one thing, but you can work your way around that to a degree. You can at least try to condition him to get more used to the idea of it with the right kind of drills and the right kind of set-ups. But at the same time, you need to make sure that that guy can go in there and when everything is as tumultuous as it is inside that cage, when the fire is on, he can go through it and not get burnt.”
“Of course he has a chance. He’s a tank. He’s got an incredible wrestling background. He’s a great physical specimen. He’s no dummy. Brock is a smart guy, and I still think he is a massive wealth of untapped potential. It’s just that – it has not been tapped. It has not been approached the right way. I would be surprised if his prep leading up to this is really what myself, hell, I’m at the gym right now training my fighters that all have matches coming up. And as a trainer, as someone that’s trained people for world championship matches, I just don’t think that the right approach is being taken with him.”
