Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett

By Jesse Heitz

Recently, news broke that Josh “The Warmaster” Barnett, formerly known as “The Baby-Faced Assassin”, is due to make his long-awaited Octagon return, having signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC. The expected, yet unexpected move, should shakeup the UFC’s Heavyweight Division, which in the eyes of some, had been on the path to stagnation.

Just a few hours before this article was written, Barnett officially announced his signing with the UFC via his Twitter account, tweeting,

“The enemy has returned. I’ve signed w/the @UFC & no heavyweight is safe. They’re all due a lesson in violence from the Warmaster. #ufc #mma”

UFC President Dana White had been angling to capture Barnett, one of the more elusive top heavyweights still on the market, for several months now. Yet, even now that the deal is in the books, so to speak, I’m still a little surprised that this deal was finalized. For years following Barnett’s departure from the UFC in 2002 following his disastrous positive PED test following his victory over Randy “The Natural” Couture, there was a bitter back-and-forth between Dana White and Josh Barnett, which for many cast considerable doubt on whether or not Barnett would ever fight under the UFC banner.

In a 2007 interview with MMAWeekly, Barnett had taken his own shot at the UFC boss, stating,

“Sitting back watching almost a decade’s worth of MMA being re-written by some guys, and that’s just a slap in the face of everybody who ever got into this in the beginning that didn’t even make a dime when we first started fighting, and didn’t even have promotions, and traveled the world to try to do everything we could to become mixed martial artists as we have today. It’s just completely disrespectful.”

“Not to mention, we’re not retired. We’re still friggen here, and training hard, and proving our mettle amongst the best in the world. Putting us on a back burner trying to act like we don’t exist, that’s either because they’re scared, they’re cowards and they don’t want us to ruin their sand castle, or they’re just spiteful.”

“Basically what it comes down to is if Dana wants to run his mouth, don’t say something that you’re not going to back up. You challenged all the boxing guys. You challenged Floyd Mayweather Jr. You make all these challenges, well, here, you said something; I’m putting a challenge to him. Step up. You claimed that they were all cowards and they didn’t have the balls to step up and laughed about it. Well, now I’m saying, look, you’re a coward. You’re not stepping up, and you made this statement, and I’m willing to prove you wrong.”

One of the more recent, and highly memorable barbs traded by these two men came from Dana White in September of 2010 following Chael Sonnen’s failed post-UFC 117 drug test. As reported by MMATorch, White stated,

“Everybody makes mistakes, it’s how you deal with those mistakes. You take a guy like Josh Barnett. This guy has tested positive three times, denies every time that he’s taken steroids. He comes out with an interview last week, basically saying ‘I don’t care about anyone else. The only person I care about is myself. I got some fans out there, thanks for following me or whatever but I’m not fighting for you, I’m fighting for me.’

“This is a guy who single handedly put a company out of business for doing what he did and has zero remorse for it. ‘I don’t care that you bought tickets for that fight and you were planning on going. I don’t care that Fedor flew all the way in from Russia to fight me, and trained and spent his own money to do this. I don’t care that this company Affliction believed in me and was allowing me to make a living and I put them out of business. All I care about is me.’ Those are the kind of guys that I have zero tolerance for, and that’s why he’s not in the UFC and never will be.”

Right now, it looks as if money, and not time, have healed old wounds. I suppose that this just proves that you can’t believe everything that you hear, that the dollar reigns supreme. To an extent, I enjoyed the banter, it made for some great headlines. However, as a fight fan, I found such bickering to be a tragedy of sorts. At a time when the UFC’s Heavyweight Division was at its weakest, a top talent like Barnett would have been incredible.

Barnett is now 35, and has been a professional fighter for 16 years, so one is left to wonder how many great fights he has left in the tank. His lopsided loss to Daniel Cormier a year ago tends to support the case that he’s on the downswing. In any event, I’m sure he’ll notch his belt with a few more wins, but I have my doubts that he’ll be able to overcome the new crop of young talent that dominates the division. What a shame that personal squabbling on both sides delayed his return to the UFC.

A victorious Cormier (photo Esther Lin / Showtime)

By FCF Staff

Although Daniel Cormier is still interested in moving to light-heavyweight and pursuing a championship there, the rising star has reportedly decided to stay at heavyweight for the time being.

The 34 year-old fighter told Bleacher Report.com that he will need time to make the move to 205 pounds, and that in the meantime, he would like to fight at heavyweight in July or August.

“At the end of the day I can’t cut massive amounts of weight,” Cormier was quoted saying. “That’s well-documented from my problems in the Olympic games. But I can diet, and when I’m dieting I can still fight. Can I fight at 205? No. Because it’s too much weight to cut in a short period of time. But could I fight a heavyweight fight and just be a little lighter? I think so.”

Cormier has been open about the fact that he has no desire to fight training partner and UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez, and following his win over Josh Barnett in January, he called out UFC light-heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

The 12-0 fighter is coming off a unanimous decision win over Frank Mir last month.

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion Daniel Cormier (right) is a key component to what Strikeforce has touted as a "stacked" card for January.

By Joshua Molina

If the so-called “stacked” Strikeforce card happens in January, here are some matches that might be worth considering.

Heavyweight:
Let’s make the Daniel Cormier vs. Frank Mir fight happen. Everyone’s high on Cormier right now, but it would be great to see him test his skills against the wily veteran Mir. Cormier might be the next big thing in MMA, but he hasn’t really been tested yet.

Mir has slowed in the last year and looked just awful against Junior Dos Santos. But he might have one more big win left in him. If Mir can pull off an upset of Brock Lesnar, he certainly defeat Cormier.

Middleweight:
Luke Rockhold needs better competition. Lorenz Larkin is not a good match for him. In the spirit of sending UFC fighters to Strikeforce, the UFC should book Wanderlei Silva vs. Rockhold. Rockhold is a strong all-around fighter and is one of the best in the world (even if he’s not in the UFC). He needs to beat a mainstream MMA name so people will start paying attention to him. Forget Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones. Silva would have his hands full with Rockhold, who is the future of MMA.

Middleweight:
Tim Kennedy vs. Lorenz Larkin is a perfect matchup. Somebody needs to pop Kennedy in the face and make him fight. It’s hard to tell if Kennedy, in those ridiculous white short-shorts wants to be a champion or an underwear model. In both of his title fights he froze, and seemed to be just happy sweating in the cage, playing it safe for 25 minutes. Larkin might let his hands go and hit Kennedy and force the U.S. Army sniper to actually fight inside the cage.

Lightweight:
Gilbert Melendez vs. Eddie Alvarez
Alvarez said he’s going to the highest bidder (bad choice, btw) so that means he’s going to the UFC. The UFC should send Alvarez to Strikeforce to challenge Melendez. That would be an awesome battle among two men who will fight and now lay on the floor for five rounds. These two have been among the best for a long time. Let’s see who’s better – for the title. As for Pat Healy, he should rematch with Josh Thomson first. Healy vs. Melendez stylistically is a boring fight. That’s likely a five-round decision victory for Melendez. Let Healy beat the guy who beat him, who Melendez beat twice before he gets a shot.

Women’s Bantamweight
Where is Ronda Rousey? She needs to fight on this card. It doesn’t matter who it is against. Should Miesha Tate be able to hang out in the background and not fight Rousey again? Tate has been the most competitive against Rousey. Let’s see these two women fight again. If Tate is afraid, what about the tough Liz Carmouche?

UFC's Matt Mitrione (pictured) is the latest fighter to be scorned by the promotion's President Dana White for not accepting a fight with minimal notice.

By Joshua Molina

Daniel Cormier and Dave Bautista don’t have a lot in common.

Cormier is a 5 foot 11 inch world class, Olympic-level wrestler and a rising star in mixed martial arts. He’s the Strikeforce Grand Prix champion and an all-around likable guy.

Bautista is a 6 foot 6 inch former WWE champion, with huge muscles, a great fashion sense and from most accounts from his wrestling days, a bit of a snot backstage.

They are both wrestlers, of sorts, trying to make it big in MMA. Their situations illustrate much of what’s wrong with the state of mixed martial arts.

Both of these fighters need opponents for their upcoming fights on Oct. 6 for Bautista and Nov. 3 for Cormier. But neither one of these guys should be fighting in these cards, for entirely different reasons.

Increasingly, fighters are being treated like pieces of meat. The sport has been so hot and popular in recent years that promoters have looked to put on big fights quickly.

The undefeated Cormier has looked impressive in his 10 victories. He won the Strikeforce Grand Prix Championship and now is headed for the UFC – since the UFC gutted the Strikeforce division.

Cormier’s opponent for his Nov. 3 show was supposed to be former UFC champ Frank Mir. But Mir got injured leaving Cormier with no opponent.

Cormier and the UFC both want to a quick fight to complete the terms of his Showtime contract. Cormier must fight one more time on the network before the UFC can pull him over. So now that Mir is out, the UFC – since it fired or took the rest of the heavyweight fighters after it bought Strikeforce – is searching for an opponent for Cormier.

UFC fighter Matt Mitrione apparently rejected an offer to fight Cormier. UFC boss Dana White then blasted Mitrone for “not wanting opportunities,” saying that his decision made him sick.

White is always talking about how he has legitimized MMA and brought it to the masses, yet he still acts like fighters should take any fight, under any circumstances, regardless of whether they have had enough time to train for that fight.

White should know better than anyone that this isn’t backyard brawling. Look what happened to Jon Jones after he fought Vitor Belfort on about a month’s notice. He nearly got his arm broken and now fighters everywhere believe they know how to beat Jones.

Cormier shouldn’t be forced to fight anybody the UFC lines up either. If he’s lucky he will get a month’s notice. That’s not enough time to prepare. Cormier has an incentive to fight and move to the UFC where he can make more money, but if the UFC puts the wrong guy in front of him, on a month’s notice of training time, the Rise of Daniel Cormier could quickly turn into the Rise and Fall of Daniel Cormier.

Unfortunately, with Zuffa owning both the UFC and Strikeforce, the sport is spread too thin and there just aren’t enough fighters readily available to jump into camp to fight Cormier.

In a perfect world, the fight would get canceled, and Cormier would fight at the beginning of the year, so that UFC and Strikeforce could adequately find a fighter and promote the card. Finding a last-minute substitute helps no one, certainly not the fighters.

Why can’t Cormier just sit out the card and fight again in a couple of months against a skilled, qualified fighter?

It’s because Strikeforce would have to cancel the entire show without Cormier on it. But Zuffa only has itself to blame by gutting the heavyweight division and building cards with little depth behind them.

In the case of Bautista, the desperation is taken to the extreme. Bautista was scheduled to make his debut this Saturday.

As of now, the show is still scheduled, but Bautista doesn’t have an opponent.

This fight should be canceled. Bautista doesn’t belong inside the cage period, much less fighting someone on less than a week’s notice.

That kind of situation just hurts the reputation of the sport. These are supposed to be big-time legitimate athletes. The idea that you could pull some guy out of nowhere and fight him against Bautista is pretty insane.

Nobody even knows if Bautista, making his MMA debut, can fight. He’s 43, slow and injury prone. Maybe he will turn out to be spectacular inside the cage, but the odds are against him.

This fight should be canceled too. But Bautista isn’t getting any younger. The company putting on the show, Classic Sports & Entertainment, badly wants to make a pay day off of Bautista. The fight will be available for a fee on the internet and in a small number of homes on Pay Per View.

Bautista was a huge name in wrestling, but that popularity will never translate into MMA, unless he signed with the UFC, where at least then it could be seen as a spectacle. And that is probably never going to happen. Bautista is risking his health, his image and his future as a pro wrestler by stepping into the cage against a nobody – literally in this case – and for what and why?

For a pay day for someone. Forcing these fights to happen is good for promoters, but bad for the sport in the long run.

Daniel Cormier (right) will face Frank Mir in Strikeforce action on Nov. 3.

By Joshua Molina

Strikeforce Grand Prix Champion Daniel Cormier has a date with former UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir on Nov. 4 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Although the two knew they were fighting each other, the date was just announced over the long weekend.

Cormier is 10-0 in his MMA career and is regarded as one of the sport’s brightest stars. He is a former Olympic wrestler who in recent fights has displayed knockout power in his hands. His biggest wins have come over Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and former UFC champion Josh Barnett.

Cormier is expected to move to the UFC, which also owns Strikeforce, after his fight with Mir, win or lose.

Mir needs a victory to stay in the conversation of top heavyweights in MMA. The man who made Brock Lesnar tap out by ankle lock was destroyed in his light fight against UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.

Mir was a last-minute replacement for Alistair Overeem, who failed a pre-fight drug test.
Mir, 16-6, has a history of pulling off big wins when no one expects him to. He is the only man to submit Lesnar. He also knocked out and submitted Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He broke Nogueira’s arm.

When he steps into the Strikeforce cage he will make history as the first fighter to fight simultaneously for the UFC and Strikeforce. Like Cormier, Mir is expected to return to the Octagon after the fight.

Twice-fired Miguel Torres has pulled out of his fight for Titan Fighting Championships on Nov. 4 to fight for upstart promotion World Series of Fighting on Nov. 3.

World Series of Fighting is expected to broadcast its show live on the NBC sports network and kickboxing legend Ray Sefo is expected to serve as president of the new promotion. Not much else is known about World Series of Fighting, but the company will hold a press conference on Thursday in Las Vegas to reveal more details.

Torres was the WEC Bantamweight champion, but hasn’t been able to repeat his success in the UFC. He was fired by UFC boss Dana White for making a ridiculous and offensive rape joke in a Sports Illustrated interview.

White let Torres come back, but then dropped him after his recent knockout loss to Michael McDonald at UFC 145.

The MMA and pro wrestling world is morning the sudden loss of Michael Clarke Duncan, the star of “The Green Mile.” Clarke also famously hung around MMA athletes and pro wrestlers, frequently appearing at Las Vegas UFC shows and WWE shows at the Staples Center.

Speaking of pro wrestling, Dave Meltzer, pro wrestling’s pioneer of news, has started writing a column for mmafighting.com. Meltzer created his own genre of pro wrestling journalism and covered the sport as journalist, not a fanboy, for long before it was ever popular.

The former Oakland Tribune reporter in the 1980s broke the stories regarding sex and steroid scandals in the WWE. Meltzer previously wrote a column for Yahoo! and he recently came under attack from Dana White who on camera blasted Meltzer for one of his reports on the declining TV ratings of the UFC.

Contact reporter Joshua Molina at jmolina@fcfighter.com. Or follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JoshuaMolinaMMA