Should Strikeforce Sign Josh Barnett?
by Kelvin Hunt on Jan 9, 2010 3:00 PM EST
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MMAWeekly is reporting that Strikeforce is in negotiations with Josh Barnett:
Sources put Barnett in the midst of ongoing negotiations with Strikeforce, but like Huerta, the two sides have yet to reach agreement on compensation.
There's no question that Josh Barnett is one of the best heavyweights in mixed martial arts when he's not getting caught for steroids. His issue with the CSAC is still ongoing for testing positive for steroids before his scheduled fight with #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. While adding Barnett to the mix would bring that baggage, it would also give the Strikeforce division more depth along with a capable challenger to both Overeem and Emelianenko. However, as the quote above suggests, he'll come with a pretty hefty price if he does agree to fight for Strikeforce. So at 32 years old, with negative steroid baggage, a high price tag, and unresolved issues with the CSAC, should Strikeforce sign the MMA veteran? His career record in MMA is (24-5) with three of those losses coming to Mirko Cro Cop, one to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and lastly Pedro Rizzo in which Barnett has avenged by KO.
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risk vs reward. barnett blew the biggest fight in MMA that was built up with Fedor. period. he lost the heavyweight title at a time when the sport was trying to emerge. his timing sucks, and if he blows another huge fight i won’t even know what to do.
Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei. Basillio. Harry Greb.
by theworldsoldestsport on Jan 9, 2010 3:05 PM EST reply actions
Well, he’s easily one of the best unsigned HW talents.. and he also single-handedly sunk Affliction. I’d say go ahead and sign him, and have him put up a bond before a fight. If he tests clean and everything is fine give the bond back, and if it’s not take that and his fight money.
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by -Neil- on Jan 9, 2010 3:34 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
rec'd
"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb
by RearNakedPoke on Jan 10, 2010 6:05 AM EST up reply actions
Barnett single “handedly” sunk Affliction?
You cannot possibly be that naive or actually believe that. That’s lunacy.
by scrambledeggs on Jan 10, 2010 12:55 PM EST up reply actions
Ok, he may not have SINGLE-handedly sunk the promotion, but him juicing before re-applying for his license was retarded. The cornerstone of that fight card was him and Fedor, and if it wasn’t so important they wouldn’t have cut the PPV. Josh Barnett isn’t a guy that’s going to be on the undercard of an event, he’ll be on the poster, and he’ll probably be either main event or co-main event. I don’t doubt that Affliction was looking for a way out of the business before it happened, but if it wasn’t Fedor or Barnett dropping off, I don’t doubt the show would have gone on.
I bash Nick Diaz for doing essentially the same thing last year, when instead of failing the test he just no-showed, but the difference is that Diaz is a guy that’s not the almost singular focus of a pay-per-view event. I wouldn’t mind seeing Strikeforce have him put up a bond too, for the same reason, but that’s probably not going to happen, and unless Showtime has them kill his contract he’ll be brought back.
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Affliction was doomed long before Barnett failed his test before Trilogy.
They had zero exposure for their product on Television, were substantially overpaying certain fighters, and had there events way too far apart. (There’s no momentum built when you have events 6 or 7 months apart.), and you could go on with more.
As far as overpaying fighters Matt Lindland made 50 grand from his last fight in Strikeforce and you could argue that’s a bit high. Affliction was paying him $300,000 a fight. Sylvia 800,000, Arlovski 1.5 million? Some guys fighting on their under card were getting over 75,000.
Then think about this someone in charge thought it was a good idea to have Tito Ortiz as a broadcaster. You think your business is going to succeed when you have people making decisions like that calling the shots? Tito Ortiz broadcaster?
As far as cancelling the last PPV that wasn’t even totally Barnett’s fault. I think it’s pretty obvious when Affliction reached an agreement with the UFC to become a sponsor again cancelling that card was part of it.
They’d been trying for days to find a decent replacement then all of a sudden the event is cancelled and they come out with a statement saying there isn’t enough time to promote a new fight to our standards. Yeah right.
by scrambledeggs on Jan 11, 2010 7:27 AM EST up reply actions
Oh yeah, there’s zero doubt that they were paying way too many dudes WAY too much money. And although Ortiz didn’t do too bad as a broadcaster, it wouldn’t have been too hard to give someone like Renallo a call.
My point is that when you’ve got a situation where a straw breaks a camel’s back (even though I don’t even necesarily think that’s the case here), is it the fault of the straw, or all the other stuff piled on? I vote straw. The problem was that with Barnett vs. Fedor on top, it was a great PPV. Without it, there were a lot of fights hardcores would die for, but a main event that casual fans didn’t know is recipe for disaster.
If you think that the weeks and weeks leading up to the PPV Affliction was looking for a way out that’s great, but that’s some grade-A Wolfman conspiracy theory. Lining up sponsors, event centers, paying the commission for licensing and wage, satellite trucks, and everything else that goes into a PPV is big, big money, and it’s not like you can ask for your deposit back when you want to back out of renting a 20,000 seat arena the week before. Would they have gone out of business the day after? Maybe. Would they have brought the PPV broadcast online and have UFC banners everywhere? You never know. But it didn’t happen that, the way it happened was the main event was scrapped because one guy was retarded, and there wasn’t sufficient time to find a guy that would draw people to PPV (Jeff Monson headlining? Yeah, right).
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nope
i’m done with him. iv’e always felt he was overated. his biggest “win” over randy was even tainted. he’s never been much of a draw either. it’s a huge risk worth very little reward. aside froma few hardcore fans, who cares about this fight anymore?
He beat Big Nog in one of the best fights of 2006.
But in all reality if Barnett thinks he deserves even close to the money Affliction was paying him, he’s insane. And that’s based solely off him single hand-idly destroying a promotion. He deserves a big pay cut until he proves himself again.
With that being said I would still like to see him fight if can stay clean.
Nope, he had his chances and he chose to piss on both the sport and the fans. Then to make it worse he lied about it even after he was caught red handed.
There is no denying the man’s skill but he is a pimple on the ass of mma and should be treated accordingly.
Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but you still can't
help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs...
x2
"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." ~ Ty Cobb
by RearNakedPoke on Jan 10, 2010 6:06 AM EST up reply actions
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