Josh Barnett has some words on Couture

Hmm


Couture would win tbh

I wouldn't mind seeing another Nog/Barnett fight, they're 1-1 and both were great fights.

He failed a drug test after the Randy fight so I don't know if they'd want to bring him back. It would be a great fight but I'd like to see them fight Fedor first.

I agree Moogie, if hes such a great athlete why did he take roids? He rightfullyl ost the belt, but yeah if he wants to go again Im all for it....

aaaaand Randy didnt seem to be overly shocked. on weather or not it bothered him, he said " I still lost the fight"

Oh I know others have been busted but that doesn't make it right, in wrestling it's about their appearance & marketability which is one thing, in MMA or any other competitive sport though it is cheating & gaining an unfair advantage.
Sylvia was stripped & fair play to him came back & won it again which is what Barnett needs to do rather than make claims of still being the champion.
He was stripped for a legit reason & so has no valid claim to the belt, however he is a great fighter, plus the fact he holds a victory over couture shouldn't be to hard to get a title match once Randy's arm is healed up

If you cheat and get caught you 100% deserve any punishment handed to you. Barnett needs to admit he ed up, got busted and that is that. ing idiot. Must take a real man to try and beat a 40 year old man takiing roids. Honestly that makes him seem out of his league. And to me he does not deserve a rematch until he can prove it and show he deserves it. By beating competition and showing he earned a right to fight for the title that Couture has.


And to Barnett you are actually the one with a useless piece of steal. Because people will pay to watch Couture defend his belt as compaired to yours.

So says the man with the Ultimate Warrior in his sig.

Well people WOULD pay to see Barnett but his current employer Pancrase, where he is a champion, is only in Japan.

I'm not defending his roid use. I'd actually like to see if Barnett can beat Couture off roids.

The latest from MMAweeekly.com on the Barnett/UFC status, interesting read.

-Josh Barnett, the number four ranked heavyweight in the world by MMAWeekly's worldwide rankings, took offense to UFC president Dana White's comments during the UFC 74 post-fight press conference that no one in the world can beat Randy Couture. Barnett issued a challenge to the UFC to make him a legitimate offer, and he'd prove White's statements false.

"At the press conference Randy didn't have anything particularly to say that was inflammatory, but Dana, on the other hand, had to putwords in his mouth and sort of write checks on Randy's behalf by saying, 'there isn't anybody in the world that can beat this guy.' And I'm standing right there, and he's already seen me. It's just bull crap. I already beat him within two [rounds], not to mention, nobody is invincible."

“That just goes without saying. Two of the absolute best heavyweights in the world aren't even in the UFC, and he claims they're going to get them all. I asked him when, and he said, 'soon.' B.S.," said the twenty-nine year old heavyweight contender.

Barnett doesn't think the UFC is trying or wants to sign certain highly ranked fighters. He commented, “They're not really making efforts to get them all, and that's because to get someone like myself or Fedor [Emelianenko] in there would ruin their entire propaganda that they've been trying to build up for so long that only what's within the UFC is really what counts, and is only the real truth of MMA. It's not MMA anymore, it's Ultimate Fighting, and that's crap."

He continued, "It's more of their whole UFC propaganda notion in that things that happened before the Spike TV explosion didn't really happen. I beat him. I took him out by TKO in under two rounds, and that's the truth of the matter. It wasn't that Randy was a bad fighter, or anything like that. I was the better person that night, and I know if we were to fight again I strongly believe that I'm still the better fighter."

Asked if the UFC has made him a serious offer, Barnett replied, "Not in my opinion, certainly not in my opinion. It's ignorant to think that someone like myself, or another high level heavyweight doesn't have an idea of what kind of figures, and contracts, and sorts of things that are offered to the top guys and top fighters in the world. So don't come at somebody with something less than that. Don't insult them by making a very patronizing offer and act like we're all that there is and you need us. I'm not down for that. If they want to be serious, I've already said before I'd fight in the UFC. I have no problem doing that. And besides the fact that Randy's got the title, whatever, even if he didn't have the belt, to say somebody is unbeatable, someone is going to say something about it."

He added, "They've got the money and ability to make what they want happen to have happen.... They say they want the best in the world, well, they actually have to have them. Even right now, if you ask me, their champ, he's not ranked any higher than five. There's already people out there ranked higher than him that they don't even have."

"I've been here from the beginning, not to mention, they have a title reign that has never been taken off of me. I left the UFC. No matter what, [Andrei] Arlovski never beat me for that belt, neither did Ricco [Rodriguez], neither did [Tim] Sylvia, for sure, and then Randy just comes out of retirement and steps in and gets an automatic title shot. Fine. If that's the way they want to do it, but from my perspective I don't need a title shot. All I need is, just put me in the ring. If you say he's unbeatable, let his arm heal, and we'll go out there and see how unbeatable he is."

Barnett would like to fight before the end of the year, but said it's not in his hands. Questioned how frustrating it is for him to be on the sidelines watching rather than competing, Josh responded, "It's incredibly frustrating because it's not a matter of anything that I am doing. It's just a matter of not, in my opinion, getting legitimate offers, simply put."

“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."

Josh went on to say, "If Dana wants to make such a bold statement about the champ I've already beaten, then put his money where he mouth is. If he really believes he's unbeatable, and they don't want to lose their token belt they have right now, fine. Go ahead, make a deal. I'll go out and fight him. I don't need that belt. I've already got my own. I'm completely happy with it. Randy's a competitor and I know he'll fight anybody, so there's not going to be any issue on his side."

"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."

“Most people know that's an erroneous statement to make in the first place, so I wouldn't be completely surprised if he completely avoided it, backed away form it and tried to ignore it, and just forgot it ever happened because it's not something he wants and he knows it's something he can't win."

Barnett made it clear he has nothing personally against Randy Couture. His issue is with Dana White's statements. About Couture, Barnett said, "It was cool to see Randy go out there and prove that to be a champion you've got to have a bunch of fights under your belt, put under the pressure cooker, and have worked your way to the top. One big win does not make a title contention. ... He's a
Washingtonian, and I've been a fan of his for a long time. We've trained together."

Asked if he thought a rematch with Couture would play out any differently now than their first bout at UFC 36 back in March of 2002, Barnett said, "No, I don't. I think I can still finish him in either the first or second round, submission or stoppage. When he fights me, it's not the best person for him to fight. He can beat other people, but I'm not one of them."

When contacted for comment, UFC president Dana White responded, "Nobody gives a sh*t about Josh Barnett, especially me."

Assassin isn't in his "Baby Faced Assassin" moniker for nothing. It equally applies to Barnett's straight-forward nature as it does to his fighting ability. He says what he means and means what he says. Love him or hate him, believe him or not, what fan wouldn't want to see Josh Barnett back in the UFC?