When the Affliction: Banned media tour came to the Trump Towers in New York City, it was hard to say who the fans were lined up to see. With so many international MMA stars on one stage, it was a toss-up. But by the time they left there was no question who had stolen the show and cemented himself in the minds of all those present. As soon as Josh Barnett took the microphone in hand, it was almost a foregone conclusion.

Now the talented heavyweight and star pro wrestler in Japan talks to Cage Potato about his career in the U.S. and abroad, about his upcoming fight against Pedro Rizzo, and much more.

CagePotato.com: Thanks for talking with me, Josh. Pedro Rizzo seems like an interesting opponent for you right now. What have you been doing to get ready for him?

Same thing I always do, training really hard in all aspects of mixed martial arts. I’ve got some really good sparring partners, like Babalu, Jamie Fletcher, and Ben Jones, who are in here every day, helping me out. I’ve also been working with a couple of boxing coaches, too, just to help work on some of the standup aspects because I wouldn’t mind knocking [Rizzo] out. So a guy named Oscar Muniz and Marvin Cooke have been helping me, and it’s just a pretty steady training camp.

Are you worried that if you go in there planning on standing and striking with him that you won’t use your grappling, where you seem to have the edge?

There’s no reason to worry. There’s no place for worry or doubt in anything that you do in the fight. I know I can fight smart. I’m going to go out there and see what’s available. I’m not going to force any particular game plan on to the fight. But I will make things go my way. There’s no worries, no concerns.

Affliction has mentioned having the winner of your fight face the winner of the Fedor-Sylvia fight at their next event. Do you think that’s really going to happen, and are you going to be paying close attention to all the other heavyweight fights on the card, just in case?

(Don’t go getting soft on us, Babyface.)

For a guy who seems like he’s getting screwed by his employer, Josh Barnett sure is keeping cool about it. First he had his fight with Andrei Arlovski put in jeopardy when Affliction decided they couldn’t pull off their October “Day of Reckoning” event in Las Vegas. Then, a few weeks later, they announce that Arlovski will be fighting on this Saturday’s Elite XC card (and will be paid well to do it), but he’ll face Roy Nelson instead of Barnett. And why? Barnett says he never turned the fight down, but Atencio says he “couldn’t get a hold of him.”

Barnett was cagey while telling his side of the story to MMA Weekly, but it sounds as if there’s something else going on here than just a simple case of miscommunication:

“I was disappointed, yes. That was supposed to be my fight. We talked about it at some point prior to going to Japan, and I found out that I didn’t get the fight while in Japan. I continued to work on some business there, especially after I found out I wasn’t getting the fight.”

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like a guy who just missed a phone call. It could be that Nelson comes a lot cheaper than “The Baby-Faced Assassin”, who has said repeatedly that he is not interested in fighting at a discounted rate.

In any event, whatever is going on between Barnett and Affliction seems to have implications beyond just this Elite XC co-promotion, as Barnett confirmed in no uncertain terms that he won’t be fighting Fedor in January.

("Mostly-natural, baby!" Photo courtesy of MMA Mania.)

Bad news for MMA fans — and disastrous news for Affliction’s MMA promotion. Sherdog is reporting that the California State Athletic Commission will not license Josh Barnett for his fight against Fedor Emelianenko at next Saturday’s Affliction: Trilogy event due to a "positive test result." We’re assuming that means steroids and not Hep B or something, though the CSAC promises to release a detailed statement today. Barnett, who was stripped of his UFC heavyweight title in 2002 for anabolic steroid use, was surprised by the news: 

(Josh’s "retarded proctologist" bit always brought a half-smile to Fedor’s face. Photo courtesy of fcfighter.com)

Yes, Affliction has yanked away the proverbial football a couple times before, but according to a new report on MMA Fanhouse, Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett are really, truly going to fight this summer — we hope:

(Kim Couture at the first “Night of Combat” show in June; thankfully, she’ll be behind the scenes this time. Photo courtesy of Mike Responts via MMA Junkie.)

With Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” card postponed, the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas was left with an open spot on its event schedule — which has been filled by a new MMA card, thanks to none other than Kim “Sugar Free” Couture. According to MMA Weekly, KC Concepts (a shadowy outfit headed up by Randy’s wife) in partnership with boxing promoter Skip Kelp’s Superfights MMA have snatched up the October 11th spot at Thomas & Mack. Two Xtreme Couture fighters who were slated to fight at “Day of Reckoning” — Jay Hieron and Mike Pyle — will now compete at “A Night of Combat II,” as well as a host of other mid-level names. Tickets are available now, and the lineup is looking like this:

1. Mike Whitehead vs. Alan Goes (205)
2. Jay Hieron vs Bryson Kamaka (170)
3. Mike Pyle vs. Brian Gassaway (170)
4. John Alessio vs. Gideon Ray (167)
5. Josh Haynes vs. Steve Byrnes (185)
6. JJ Mix vs. John Halverson (155)
7. Mike Dizak vs. Erick Uresk (155)
8. Patrick “Kui” Gonzalves vs. Ryan Lamareaux (145)
9. Ian Omalza vs Ryan Hass (135)
10. Elana Reed vs Stephanie Palmer (115) swing

Not too bad, considering the most expensive ticket is $53. I wonder if Ozzy will still show up…

Related: “Day of Reckoning” headliner Josh Barnett is also moving on with his life. He will reportedly fight at Sengoku 6 (November 1st; Saitama, Japan) against an opponent to be named later. The event will be co-headlined by the semi-finals and finals of Sengoku’s lightweight grand prix, featuring Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, and Mizuto Hirota.

(His body is in the ring, but his mind is still back in the locker room, trying to come up with an eight-letter word for ‘Movie opening.’)

Contrary to what you’ve seen on the internet lately, Josh Barnett is not content to spend the rest of his life trading mean faces with Bob Sapp and roughing up hapless foes in regional grappling tournaments. He really does want to fight for real again, or so he declared on his Twitter recently, but the problem is that he can’t find an opponent. At least, he can’t find a heavyweight opponent willing to meet him in Japan, which is sort of his only option at the moment since he can’t seem to get right with the athletic commissions back home in the U.S.

Barnett told fans he’d heard a “rumor” that both Tim Sylvia and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (both of whom have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at some point in their past) had each turned down fights with Babyface in Dream. How much fact there is in that rumor, we can’t really say, but it wouldn’t exactly surprise us to hear that “The Maine-iac” is more or less done fighting quality opponents and has decided instead to crush whatever cans Monte Cox lines up for him.

Rumor has it that the first official M-1 Global event will feature Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett battling it out in Newark, so I thought I’d post a vid of “The Baby-Faced Assassin” in action. A veteran of both the UFC and PRIDE organizations, Barnett has a record of 25-5 and holds notable wins over Randy Couture, Dan Severn, Aleksander Emelianenko, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which makes him a much more credible opponent for Fedor than Hong Man Choi. This fight is from K-1 ROMANEX in May 2004, and features a wild ending where both fighters are hanging through the ropes (though feel free to skip past the first 2:25 unless you speak Japanese):

To see Barnett’s win over Aleksander Emelianenko, go here. Hopefully Fedor will get a chance to avenge his lil’ brudder‘s beating…

This is officially an MMA catch phrase now. Thanks, Andrei Arlovski (via MMA Rated). Whether you knew what you were saying or not, you have indeed given us a wonderful gift. Even Josh Barnett’s saying it. He’s also talking about how much he loves British metal band Bolt Thrower, which he likens to “being surrounded by an army of guitars and having your skull crushed.” Sweet.

(“Don’t worry about me, Josh. I’ll be telling the media how much of a fucking joke you were to begin with by this time tomorrow.”)

It is being reported by multiple sources that Josh Barnett has officially turned down a UFC contract, despite the fact that we did literally everything within our power to hype up his return. The ungrateful son of a bitch former UFC heavyweight champion has been in negotiations with the organization to rejoin their ranks after his most recent home, Strikeforce, exited the fight game with a whimper last month.

Barnett’s manager, Leland LaBarre, seemed to suggest that show cash was not their issue with the UFC’s offer, which is pretty surprising considering the ridiculous rate Barnett was receiving over at Strikeforce. According to LaBarre, there were other, undisclosed issues between Barnett and the UFC that simply could not be worked out:

We agreed on guaranteed compensation.In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer. There are some outlying issues – one in particular – that as of this point we were unable to agree on.

Could the Warmaster be Octagon-bound after all? Props to Karl Olsson on the UG for giving us the heads-up that a fighter page for Josh Barnett has just been added to UFC.com. The page lists the heavyweight veteran’s career record, a few striking/grappling stats, and a brief Q&A which reveals that Barnett “sold guns” before he started fighting, and that he considers his win over Randy Couture at UFC 36 to be the key fight in his career. Keep in mind that Barnett was stripped of his UFC heavyweight title following that win due to a positive test for multiple steroids, which is what put him on the UFC’s black-list in the first place.

Barnett’s re-signing with the UFC hasn’t been officially announced, but we’ll let you know if that changes. In the meantime, feel free to suggest possible matchups for Josh’s UFC return in the comments section. (Our twitter suggestion that Barnett fight Pat Barry was quickly dismissed by both men.)

Update: On Thursday, 1/17, Barnett tweeted that despite his inclusion on the UFC website, he still hasn’t signed a contract.

(Props: @JoshLBarnett)

Now, if that happened to my hand, it would be a wrap — you wouldn’t be able to stop me from sobbing. But Josh Barnett is cut from a different cloth than you or I. Despite suffering this uncomfortable-looking break within the first 30 seconds of his Strikeforce headlining fight against Black Fedor/Bro Cop on Saturday, the Warmaster bravely battled on for five agonizing rounds, only letting the pain show after the match was over. That’s what you call a savage and a true champ. Daniel Cormier also re-broke his hand early in the fight, but until he provides us with x-ray evidence, we’re going to have to proclaim Barnett the winner of their unofficial Gnarly Hand Injury contest.

After Josh Barnett‘s re-licensing bid was stonewalled by the CSAC in December — leading him to basically give up on California altogether — Strikeforce figured they could solve their problems by hosting Barnett’s promotional debut in Texas, a lawless wasteland whose notoriously lax athletic commission allowed Antonio Margarito to box Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium the year after after he was caught loading his gloves.

That fact that we hadn’t heard anything about Barnett’s licensing status in the lead-up to June 18th’s “Overeem vs. Werdum” event at the American Airlines Center seemed like a good sign. But problems remain — namely, that the Babyface Assassin reportedly hasn’t completed his Texas licensing application, with just ten days until showtime.

If you are a child of the 80s, Richard Dean Anderson will probably forever hold a special place in your heart as one of the coolest heroes ever. Why there isn’t still a show running in which a non-violent genius improvs helpful gadgets and kludges with a few innocuous articles from his lady friend’s purse is beyond us. Luckily, the spirit of MacGyver lives on in us all, and that includes Mr Josh Barnett.

The Babyface Assassin was having interview funtime with Karyn Bryant of MMA HEAT when a mishap with free weights put a damper on some dude’s day, leaving him with a dinged schnoz. Weightlifter guy is doing the whole routine: yeah, this is like the other times I broke it, nah, it don’t hurt that bad, yeah, I’m ok, nah, I ain’t got time to bleed.

Barnett springs into action! Using a couple of ballpoint pens, our buddy Josh manages to open and straighten Mr Bad Snatch’s nasal passages. It’s no field tracheotomy, but still probably a handy bit of knowledge to have, especially if people punch you in the face a lot.

Weightlifter dude walks away to cry off-camera, Josh does his PSA about bad snatch, end scene. While you probably didn’t learn anything, we at least distracted you for three minutes, so you’re welcome. If you’ve ever performed some oddball first aid using the field medic training you received in ‘Nam, tell us about it in the comments. (No need to share your own stories of snatch encounters, thanks.)

[RX]

(If you can’t beat [a drug test], join [a Japanese pro-wrestling organization])

Zach Arnold over at FightOpinion.com dug up an interesting story on where embattled former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett is fighting next.

It turns out that "The Babyfaced Assassin," who was denied licensure in California last year due to a positive steroid test prior to his Affliction showdown with Fedor Emelianenko and was subsequently blamed for the promotion’s collapse by its president Tom Attencio, is stepping away from MMA and is going back to his pro wrestling roots. Barnett is said to have signed a longterm deal to "compete" under retired Japanese MMA fighter, pro wrestler and onetime Muhammad Ali opponent Antonio Inoki’s IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) banner in Japan.

(Props: MMA TKO)

Getting Fedor to crack a smile is no small accomplishment, but leave it to Josh Barnett to turn a standard pre-fight hype interview during a Strikforce intermission into a wacky slapstick routine.  Congratulations, Baby Face.  Fedor is amused.  And because he is amused, he will only hurt you as much as is absolutely necessary, and no more.

(Props: Jezebel, via Cage Potato reader BB.)

Yeah, that’s former UFC heavyweight champ and Pride star Josh Barnett in a photo layout for a recent issue of French Vogue.  The basic idea is that this model in a bikini is photographed beating the hell out of various men in the desert.  In other words, fashion photographers have officially run out of ideas.  How Barnett got roped into this deal is anybody’s guess, but he sure seems to be giving it everything he’s got.  Just look at his facial expression.  It practically screams, ‘I am pretending to get my ass kicked.’  I guess a guy’s got to entertain himself somehow while he waits to find out whether he’ll ever get that Fedor fight.

(How can Josh be thinking about a fight with Fedor when his loss to Gunma Devil is still unavenged? Photos courtesy of JoshBarnett.tv.)

"I’ve heard nothing, I know nothing, I see nothing. What it comes down to is that I don’t have a bout agreement to fight anybody in particular. This is coming up on my third fight for Affliction, with the logical idea that it would lead up to [a fight with Emelianenko]. But as it sits, I’m sitting on my last fight and I’m just waiting for an opponent to show themselves. Whoever is available, I’ll take them, but I know the fans are really hot to see me fight Fedor. It just hasn’t been put together." — Josh Barnett on Inside MMA, discussing his uncertain future. The persistent rumor of Affliction’s third show going up against UFC 100 would seem even more ill-advised if it isn’t even headlined by Emelianenko vs. Barnett.

"To be honest I’m just waiting… for the UFC to give me a phone call and I’m able to fight my last fight. I’m just kind of waiting on that."— Roger Huerta on Inside MMA, discussing his own uncertain future. After declining to renew his UFC contract in January in order to pursue a career in acting and modeling, Huerta turned down a fight against Joe Stevenson at UFC 95 in February and hasn’t exactly been on the UFC’s speed-dial since then. Huerta has one fight remaining on his current contract, which runs through December.

(For a guy who looks like the bully in a teen comedy, he’s actually quite cerebral.)

If you’re like me, you’re pretty sick of hearing from Freddie Roach about how great Andrei Arlovski’s boxing is and how poor Fedor’s is.  It’s enough to make you almost wish that Arlovski would come out in a traditional boxing stance and try to use only his stupendous hand skills to defeat the world’s number one heavyweight, all just so boxing guys like Roach could get a quick and easy lesson in why that doesn’t work in an actual fight.  

Enter Josh Barnett – MMA’s well-spoken gentleman – who calmly explains why we’d all be better off ignoring Roach:

"As far as his striking not being impressive, I guess Freddie Roach is going to eat crow. It’s not like what Freddie Roach is used to and what he would normally step into a boxing ring and see across the way. Fedor’s striking for MMA is very precise and it’s been very successful for him."

"The minute you push him he doesn’t go back he comes forward and he just immediately punches and tries to take you down. If he encounters trouible on the feet, he doesn’t try to stay and work his way out of that, he changes gears."

Thank you, Barnett.  Thank you for reminding us that there’s a reason Fedor is the most dominant heavyweight in MMA, and that reason is not that he has yet to face a Freddie Roach-trained fighter.  Not that Arlovski isn’t also a tough fighter with a real chance to win, but damn, does anyone really believe that boxing is Fedor’s kryptonite?  Be serious.

(Props: Card on the UG)

Now that Tom Atencio is saying that the winner of Day of Reckoning’s Josh Barnett/Gilbert Yvel fight will face the winner of Fedor Emelianenko/Andrei Arlovski, we might as well see how Yvel’s doing these days. Judging from the recent training clip shown above, he likes his chances for next month’s match, even though he acknowledges his deficient ground game (while giving credit to his opponent’s submission skills). He stops just short of actually apologizing for his ugly in-ring behavior in the past, but does state that he’s very happy to fight in the States again. "It’s one time, and never again," he says. Not sure if that "one time" refers to the eye-gouging, the biting, or the ref-stomping — maybe all three — but we should all just drop the Yvel-hate and start getting psyched for the inevitable Andrei/Gilbert WAMMA heavyweight championship fight at Affliction III. [Ed. note: j/k!]

(…and the card holders for Barnett’s next fight.)

When Josh “The Babyface Assassin” Barnett fights for World Victory Road in Japan on March 5th, it’ll be the first time we’ve seen him in action in 15 months. Hidehiko Yoshida will be his opponent in the main event at “Sengoku” – WVR’s debut event. Barnett says this fight makes for a good headliner – on an already exciting card – and he’s glad to be back in action.

World Victory Road became the winning horse in the Barnett race after a messy contract situation left by the dismatling of PRIDE. The brand new WVR has been snatching up fighters lately, including top guys like Nick “The Goat” Thompson, Takanori Gomi, and Kazuyuki Fujita – all fighting in the debut event.

Barnett mentioned that although he is now with WVR, he wouldn’t rule out signing up with DREAM, which is run by several former PRIDE suits in conjunction with some K-1′s parent company. Barnett says the deal would be up to DREAM and the execs know what the issues were in PRIDE, so the conflicts can be avoided if they wanted. That could set up a possible fourth fight with Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic who recently signed up with DREAM. Cro Cop accounts for three of Barnett’s five career losses. Are we over that match-up or not? Me? I could probably be coerced into tuning in, but would complain about it being boring the next day.

Josh also recently spoke about the talk of him possibly fighting Fedor Emelianenko.

“Honestly, I don’t think much about it at all. I’m not Randy (Couture),” he said about the Fedor fight. “I’m not going to chase after this fight. For me, I need to be out there fighting my fights, creating my own merit. Fedor is the No. 1 guy out there based on his past performances; he’s an incredible fighter and a cool guy. At this point people need to go their own ways.

“I’ve been waiting way too damn long to get a fight because of the turmoil that came of Pride folding, so at this point I’m not going to do anything that could possibly stall or hold up my career anymore in hopes in putting one specific (fight) together.”

Another high-profile matchup has been added to Affliction’s July 19th debut card (Location TBA), as Josh Barnett confirmed last night that he’ll be taking on Pedro Rizzo. It’ll only be Barnett’s second match on U.S. soil since UFC 36 (3/22/02), where “The Babyface Assassin” knocked out Randy Couture to win the UFC’s heavyweight belt, but was stripped of the title directly after for failing a steroid test; Barnett then re-launched his career in Japan, where the drug policies were, shall we say, less judgmental.

Adding to the drama is the fact that the two fighters have previously met. Barnett suffered his first career loss at UFC 30 (2/23/01) against Rizzo, who knocked out the Seattle native in the second round. Said Barnett:

“[A]fter he knocked me out with one of those really nice, well put together Pedro Rizzo right hands, I stood right there for the challenge and said you know what, I’m going to come back here, I’m going to fight him again and next time I’m knocking his ass out. So I’ve got to make good on my promises and I’ve got to stick to my word.”

Regarding Affliction 1′s current lineup — which includes Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia, and Matt Lindland vs. TBA — Josh was his usual sardonic self:

“As much as I love my buddy Fedor, it’s going to suck for him because I’m stealing the show.”

Barnett is consistently ranked among the world’s top ten heavyweights by any MMA news outlet with an opinion (this one included), despite the fact that he hasn’t had an impressive win since 2006. Beating Rizzo would help remind American MMA fans who he is, but a bout with the Brazilian UFC/PRIDE vet isn’t quite the return match we were hoping for. Rizzo has gone 2-2 since leaving the UFC in 2003; true, he scored both of his recent wins last year, but he’s also old enough to have fought Tank Abbott at Ultimate Brazil. Is anyone else getting a “Masters Superfight” vibe from this one?

Video of Barnett vs. Rizzo at UFC 30 is after the jump…

(We assume that this is how Barnett’s contract negotiation went down.)

Although we might have jumped the gun when we noticed that Josh Barnett’s profile had been added to UFC.com some weeks back — which honestly, can you blame us? – it finally appears that the perennial top heavyweight IS in fact headed back to the UFC despite rejecting his initial contract. For serious this time (via MMAJunkie/USA Today):

USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with promotion officials that former UFC heavyweight champion Barnett has signed a new multi-fight deal with the promotion and is expected to make his return to the octagon later this year. An official announcement is expected soon. 

“The Warmaster” has not competed since effortlessly strangling out some dude at the final Strikeforce event, but his addition to the UFC’s apparently shallow heavyweight division will undoubtedly make for some fireworks. Who would you like to see Barnett face first, Potato Nation? Personally, I’d like to see him rematch Nandor Guelmino, the scary-looking sumbitch who if I recall correctly gave Barnett one hell of a fight at…what’s that? You say Nandor *is* the guy Barnett effortlessly tapped at the final Strikeforce event? Joe Silva, I don’t know how you pull it off, you magnificent “mean little f*cker.”

To celebrate Barnett’s sure-to-be-triumphant return, we’ve compiled the definitive collection of Warbringer songs (and the Bolt Thrower song after which Barnett is nicknamed) after the jump. If you don’t understand why, well then you just don’t know Josh Barnett.

(Come on…hasn’t Mark Hunt suffered enough?)

Tomorrow night in San Jose, Josh Barnett will face the greatest challenge of his post-PRIDE career when he meets Daniel Cormier in the finals of Strikeforce’s World Heavyweight Grand Prix. (FYI, we’ll be liveblogging the Showtime main card starting at 10 p.m. ET, so don’t make any big plans.) Barnett’s comfort-level in the cage and catch-wrestling expertise have led him on a four-year winning streak, and one more victory could earn him an improbable return to the UFC. In honor of this pivotal moment for the Warmaster, we decided to round up his five greatest submissions. Enjoy, and shoot us your predictions for Barnett vs. Cormier in the comments section…

(Josh Barnett vs. Semmy Schilt; UFC 32, 6/29/01)

Barnett’s first submission in the Octagon came against gigantic kickboxer Semmy Schilt, who had made his UFC debut the previous month by smashing Pete Williams. Wisely, Barnett avoids the standup game entirely, immediately taking the Dutchman to the mat. Schilt is absolutely helpless underneath the Babyface Assassin, and eventually gives up mount. Barnett waits for the right moment then attacks Schilt’s arm, giving up position in the process. It doesn’t matter — Barnett sinks the armbar at the 4:21 mark of the first round and establishes himself as a fearsome heavyweight grappler.

(UFC President Dana White revealed the organization’s previous plans for Barnett during a media scrum last weekend)

According to Dana White, nomadic heavyweight Josh Barnett not only turned down an opportunity to fight in the UFC again for the first time in a decade, he also turned down a chance to jump right into title contention. Barnett is 1-1 in his last two bouts — rebounding with a first-round submission victory over Nandor Guelmino last month following his decision loss to Daniel Cormier in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix finals — but White said Saturday that if his promotion had been able to sign Barnett, they would have immediately pitted him against fellow former heavyweight champ Junior Dos Santos.

According to SB Nation, White said that the standard exclusivity component of the proposed UFC contract was the sticking point that Barnett had with the organization’s offer. Barnett has not announced any other plans for his MMA career and White went out of his way to say that he didn’t think the fighter was hesitant to face Dos Santos or any other particular fighter, so perhaps the two sides are still negotiating.

“I’m sure Josh Barnett wouldn’t care (who he fought),” White said after the UFC on Fuel 7 card in England this past Saturday. ”Josh Barnett is a fly by the seat of his pants kind of guy, he does his own thing, beats to his own fucking drum. Josh Barnett’s never been a guy to say I don’t want to fight this guy or I won’t fight that guy. He’s not that type of person.”

(“By the way, my offer to piss in your mouth? I’m still down if you are.” Photo courtesy of JoshLBarnett.)

The UFC is holding its annual Fighter Summit this week in Las Vegas, bringing together the entire UFC and Strikeforce rosters for the purposes of education and camaraderie — pretty boring stuff, judging from Gegard Mousasi’s amazingly child-like doodles. But it did provide opportunities for old rivals to rub shoulders. Josh Barnett posted this photo yesterday evening with the note, “Pigs have now flown. Watch for Hell to freeze over next. Me and @danawhite together again.”

Barnett has publicly criticized the UFC and Dana White in the past, but when Zuffa bought Strikeforce in March, all of a sudden DW was a pretty fucking metal dude in Josh’s opinion. (That’s a compliment.) Barnett is scheduled to face Brett Rogers at Strikeforce’s “Overeem vs. Werdum” event on June 18th in Dallas. Whether he has a future in the company after that is still anybody’s guess, no matter how friendly he and Dana appear to be when somebody’s pointing a camera-phone at them.

(VidProps: YouTube/ZP420MMA)

With the opening bouts of the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament less than a month away, embattled grand prix participant Josh Barnett turned up on HDNet’s Inside MMA over the weekend, where he and Bas Rutten both just started saying stuff. Protest if you want, but it makes for great TV when nobody is around to check facts or rein in the insanity. Clearly, Barnett and Bas just want to bro down, have a couple of drinks and reminisce about how radical it used to be to be King of Pancrase, leaving poor Kenny Rice to try to bumble his way through some actual journalism.

Things reach a fever pitch of awesomeness at about the 3:40 mark, when Rice asks Barnett a serious question about his efforts (or lack thereof) to get relicensed in California. Barnett dismissively waves his hands and pretty much says he doesn’t give a damn, that he doesn’t need no pencil-pushing lawmakers to tell him when and where he throws down. All the while Bas just chuckles to himself and mumbles stuff like “Right! Yeah!” as if to say “You tell it, brother!” Seriously, these guys are two peas in a pod …

Video courtesy TMZ. Josh Barnett Does Karaoke – Watch more Funny Videos

Recently signed Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett may be way too busy to attend his next California State Athletic Commission license reinstatement hearing in February, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have time to belt out a few karaoke tunes.

Judging by the video above that was taken of Barnett last week at a bar in Los Angeles, it’s probably safe to say that the Babyfaced Assassin won’t be releasing an album anytime soon, but if he does, he might want to consider hiring a better hype man.

(Video courtesy YouTube/FightHubTV)

At last week’s Bellator show, middleweight Hector Lombard raised a few eyebrows when he said he wanted to face recently-signed Strikeforce heavyweight Josh Barnett in his next bout.

It turns out that the pair have a beef between them that can be traced back to a particular sparring session in 2008.

According to Lombard’s former and Barnett’s current trainer from Combat Submission Wrestling, Erik Paulson, a day or two after a bloody 30-minute boxing match between the duo at the gym, "The Babyfaced Assassin" dragged Lombard into the cage and used his weight advantage to hold him on the canvas and humiliate the Cuban judoka in front of his teammates.

Paulson revealed that the incident was the reason Lombard walked away from the gym to join American Top Team and said he’s surprised that he’s still upset over it.

(Props: fighthub)

Heads-up: Impact FC’s first heel-tastic fight card goes down this Saturday at the Brisbane Entertainment Center, headlined by Josh Barnett (25-5) vs. Geronimo "Mondragon" Dos Santos (18-9). In the above video interview, Barnett predicts that Dos Santos will make a big thud when he hits the mat, and says he’ll "anally rape [Dos Santos] if possible." Would you expect anything less from The Greatest Sportsman in MMA?

Barnett is on a five-fight win streak, and most recently submitted Mighty Mo at DREAM.13. Dos Santos snapped a two-fight losing skid in May when he knocked out Fabio Jamantha at a Combat Fight event in Brazil. This weekend’s Impact event marks the first time that Mondragon will compete outside of his home country. The current lineup of "Impact FC: The Uprising – Brisbane" is below:

Josh Barnett vs. Geronimo Dos Santos
Karo Parisyan vs. Luis "Besouro" Dutra Jr
Carlos Newton vs. Brian Ebersole
Joaquim Ferreira vs. Sokoudjou
Jeff Monson vs. Brad Morris
Bira Lima vs. Felise Leniu
Jai Bradney vs. Thiago "Minu" Meller

After the jump: Three videos of Geronimo Dos Santos in action, including his beat-down of Zuluzinho…

(Josh Barnett’s most recent pro wrestling outing, courtesy of his MySpace page. If you’re dying to see how the match ends, go here.)

He may still be a black sheep in the MMA family, but that doesn’t mean Josh Barnett is going to hop a Greyhound for parts unknown and never call you again, even if you might want it that way.  The  "Baby-Faced Assassin" surfaced at the World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championships in southern California this week long enough to win the "Ultra Heavyweight" (over 215 pounds) division with a judges’ decision over Bruno Paulista on Sunday.  Barnett crowed about the victory on his Twitter account, proclaiming "Catch Wrestling lives!", much to the chagrin of BJJ competitors like Pablo Popovitch, who told Graciemag.com before this event, "[W]e can’t let a guy who does catch wrestling win the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship."

Sorry, Pablo.  Guess Barnett never got that memo.  If you’re wondering what Barnett’s MMA future holds, apart from being the sport’s unsung savior, you should check out this video interview with Scott Coker where he says that Strikeforce has been in "loose contact" with Barnett, and once he works out his issues with the California State Athletic Commission, "maybe then we’ll be a little bit more interested."  You know.  If he works out those "issues."