Frailty, Thy Name Is Josh Barnett
This isn’t about a failed drug test as much as it’s about a fallen hero. This isn’t about Affliction scrambling…
This isn’t about a failed drug test as much as it’s about a fallen hero. This isn’t about Affliction scrambling for a replacement, about fans being denied an epic bout or the inevitability of disappointment as much as it’s about honor, dignity and what should have been. This isn’t about Josh Barnett the ex-UFC champ, the Baby-Faced Assassin who went to Japan and became the third-best heavyweight fighter in the world – the man who could very well have knocked Fedor Emelianenko off his throne – as much as it’s about someone we believed in. Someone who, on the eve of what could’ve been his finest hour, proved once more he was all too human.
Earlier this week the California State Athletic Commission announced that a failed pre-fight drug screening on the part of Barnett meant no license would be issued for his scheduled August 1st pairing with Fedor for Affliction: Trilogy at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Barnett and Fedor’s faces have been plastered atop a fleet of yellow taxis in New York City for the last month, the tagline Do you know who I am? prominent – and now, those who do, know them not for a crowd-pleasing, knockdown-drag-out war, but for a urine sample, Drostanolone and shame.
Few may recall the Superbrawl 13 eight-man tournament of 1999, which saw the greatest assemblage of non-UFC heavyweights around step into the ring in Hawaii and battle it out. But Barnett’s fans will remember, remember staking out the Internet for results and jumping for joy when the up-and-comer won all three bouts and was crowned king. The tall, blond and impossibly agile Matt Hume protégé was simply a submission savant then, yet none could stop him – not the legendary Dan Severn (who fell prey to an armbar), not the towering Gan McGee (who withered under a storm of strikes), and not the dangerous Semmy Schilt (who ended up tapping out). And while Pedro Rizzo managed to hand Barnett his first loss with a highlight-reel KO, the Baby-Faced Assassin’s ascension would not – could not – be halted. At UFC 36, Barnett proved to be too big, too skilled and too much for Randy Couture, and the young man considered the underdog going into the bout was suddenly the champ.
His fans will remember all this, and how he was friendly and approachable and real (asking him about Godzilla films or anime would elicit long, well-thought out responses, the kind made by connoisseurs and nerds alike). And he was no cold-hearted cheater. When Barnett fought Bobby Hoffman in the Octagon he accidently poked the Miletich-trained fighter in the eye in the first round; when the two squared off for Round 2, Barnett again gave Hoffman a heartfelt apology. The only thing his failed post-Couture fight drug screening proved was that he was human. Simply human.
It was steroids then, just as it is steroids now derailing his Affliction: Trilogy pairing with Fedor. But in his 18 fights since being stripped of the UFC belt, only two opponents have bested him. No drug could do that. Barnett’s skills, his talent and his heart make him what he is, enabling him to compete with the best and emerge victorious more often than not. No amount of Drostanolone could enable him to go the distance with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and submit both Hidehiko Yoshida and Aleksander Emelianenko. As any true fan would attest to, that was all Barnett.
And when the Baby-Face Assassin returns, honor and dignity restored by his renewed valor in the ring, the man twice sullied by steroids will be a hero once more.