Barnett: Me vs. Arlovksi is PRIDE vs. UFC

UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, ahead of his fight Saturday night with Andrei Arlovski, in the main event of UFC Fight Night 93 on September 3, 2016 at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Arlovski, 37, is on a two-fight losing streak, both KOs, to Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem.

Arlovski, 37, is on a two-fight losing streak, both KOs, to Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem. Barnett, 38, has lost two of his last three, one by KO to Travis Browne and one via submission to Ben Rothwell. The loss to Rothwell was the first sub loss for The Warmaster; the loss to Browne fight was only the third time he has been stopped by punches. By contrast, Arlovski has lost 12 time to strikes.

However they are both enormously dangerous, enormously entertaining fighters, with enormous resumes that include the UFC heavyweight championship.

“My mental state is as good as it’s been,” said Barnett, as transcribed by Luke Thomas for MMA Fighting. “I actually asked for this fight because I’m not the only old geezer on this thing. You got Andrei. He’s just as old as I am, essentially. The fact that he’s been knocked out like twelve times means he’s probably even older yet.

“I’m aiming to make it thirteen.”

“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to keep doing this because I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I was in the gym just getting a little cardio work in, what have you and this kid comes up to me. I’m going to assume Russian, but I know he could be from any number of Eastern European countries.

“He goes, ‘Oh man, I’d really like to shake your hand. It’s really great to meet you. Man, I remember watching you fight way back in the day. I was just a little kid.’

“It hit home, I’ve been doing this that long. There are people that were children. I’ve said it jokingly before, but it is a truth there are people that didn’t even know what the hell the UFC was when I was fighting in it. Now they’re in the UFC. I’ve seen at least, probably, two, maybe three generations of fighters come and go.”

Barnett said he did not know what to expect from Arlovski.

“I don’t know. I really don’t,” said Barnett. “He’s done so much over so long of a career and everybody has witnessed his talent time and time again, but I’d like to think that whatever he possesses now is not going to be good enough. And to say whatever he had then was never going to be good enough, but I have to go out there and implement my will upon him. Knowing how tough Andrei Arlovski is meant that I had to train incredibly hard. I had to keep a lot of things in mind while I’m training to perfect my approach towards this fight. He is not someone to take lightly and he isn’t anybody to underestimate.

“I have ultimate faith in who I am, what I’ve done and what I possess to go into that cage. Knowing that, it doesn’t diminish the fact of how dangerous an opponent Andrei Arlovski is. He’s coming off of two losses, but like people often say, it’s the cornered animal.”

“I just think about winning. Winning is really all that matters. I don’t need to chase titles because I’ve fought in so many title fights and so many title fight-level matches that if somebody thinks I need to give them a reason to give me a shot at any belt in the world, then clearly they don’t know what they’re about as far as MMA. I’m ready to fight anybody with any belt anywhere in the world. This fight could be a title fight in the UFC. It could be a title fight anywhere. It just so happens that it’s not, but it is the main event.

“I’m hoping that Andrei is a much nicer guy than Roy Nelson. And if I happen to be winning, he actually lets me finish him or something so we don’t have to keep fighting out there. To be perfectly honest, he’s a heavyweight, too. I don’t know why the hell he would want to go 25 minutes if he didn’t have to.”

“The way I introduced this fight to the fan base out here was this is UFC vs. PRIDE. He was the UFC hotshot while we were over in PRIDE. This is one of those matchups that people would’ve wanted to have seen back in the day that never happened. By having us get in there now, I know it’s a bit after the fact. Technically, we’re both UFC fighters, not to mention I was a UFC fighter before being a PRIDE fighter. Our ascent in the MMA world started at the same time. He was on the same card as I was, UFC 28 in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal.”

“Here we are, come full circle. I want to get in the ring with him. I want to challenge this guy that used to be considered unstoppable. Simple as that.”

(2:15:47 mark)