Never at a loss for commentary, he is also one of the few critics unafraid to speak against industry leader Zuffa, particularly in its attempt to commandeer Pride FC last year. With his ties in the Japanese fight world and his previous experiences with Zuffa, Barnett successfully extrapolated what was ahead for Zuffa and Pride Worldwide, stating on the record in early 2007 that "Pride is dead" well before Dana White and company had made it official.

"I never expected Zuffa to do anything with Pride," Barnett said. "It's hard enough to work over here as a foreigner, and now they're going to come over here and tell the Japanese that the things they've been doing longer than the UFC has been in existence needs to be changed because they have `a better way'? They're not going to hear it."

Barnett also confirmed rumors of resistance on the Japanese end of the Zuffa-led Pride project.

"The Japanese had no interest in it after Dana White said they were going to make changes to the regulations to make it like the UFC," Barnett explained. "Basically, everyone told me, `That's it, we don't want this. We won't support this. Pride Worldwide is basically just UFC in Japan, so we don't want anything to do with it.'"