Antonio Silva Wants Josh Barnett for Sengoku's Heavyweight Steroid Championship

(Seriously. The man showers after every workout, and always uses fresh needles. Image courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Thank God for the city of Japan — where else would fighters who are wrongly accused of steroid use get a chance to redeem themselves? According to an article posted yesterday on Tatame (via BloodyElbow), two such innocent victims could be meeting in the ring at the end of this year:

Though Bigfoot caught a one-year suspension from the CSAC for testing positive for Boldenone last July, he decided to skate off to Japan to take a Sengoku fight against Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao in January, which ended abruptly after Nakao's knee blew out. So even though Silva could theoretically return to competition in the States soon, it's unclear how much mercy American athletic commissions will have on him.

What's strange to me is how the supposedly innocent Silva is welcoming a fight with Barnett without any kind of chastisement of Babyface's 'roid bust. You'd think Bigfoot would at least throw in a "steroids are bad" preface to his call-out of Barnett. I guess in Japan, you don't even need to fake it; steroids are what will make this fight possible, so God bless 'em. The drawback is, Sengoku's heavyweight title will be absolutely meaningless to those who appreciate clean competition. Then again, for heavyweights who can't seem to cycle off the juice correctly, it's the only title that matters...