MMA Vet Josh ‘The Babyfaced Assassin’ Barnett recently inked a deal with Strikeforce earlier this week. He has joined a heavyweight division that is slowly becoming stacked and very competitive. Barnett has not been given an official date nor opponent since signing with the promotion, but we’ll most likely be seeing him in action before the end of 2010.
In a recent interview with MMA Weekly Radio, Barnett told fans that he was really looking forward to collide with Fedor ‘The Last Emperor’ Emelianenko sometime in the near future. Both men were scheduled to fight at Affliction’s 3rd event back in late July of 2009, but Barnett was pulled out of the main card 10 days prior to the fight. ‘The Babyfaced Assasin’ tested positive for anabolic steroids and due to that, the entire event was cancelled. He later requested a re-test, but failed that test as well.
The Last Emperor acquired his “first real loss” against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Fabricio Werdum earlier this summer as part of a Strikeforce main event. Werdum made history on June 26th when he defeated Fedor, the man considered by many as the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Despite Fedor’s triangle choke submission loss in the first round, Barnett still believes that he is still amongst the top fighters in the world and would love to have a second opportunity to face Fedor.
From Josh Barnett:
“At some point me and Fedor, I said to him, I go, ‘look, the only people that can beat you. I can beat you and you can beat me. If we actually have to lose, if there’s any reason we have to lose to anyone,’ and I preferred it be like that, but this is fighting and things happen. Fedor was careless with his offense and his movements and he got caught in a very bad spot by a guy who one of his specialties is the triangle off his back. When you put yourself in that kind of position with a guy like Werdum, it’s not by chance that you get put in a triangle or an armbar. People lose, and it doesn’t diminish anything in my eyes about Fedor or the importance of a fight between the two of us. I’m sure it will happen at some point, and it will be just as amazing, at least for me anyways, as it would have been.”
