Josh Barnett Plans to Use the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix as a Stepping Stone
by Anton Tabuena on Feb 10, 2011 4:29 AM EST
in Strikeforce News
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On the Srikeforce press-conference in New York, Josh Barnett talked about the upcoming heavyweight grand prix. The former top ranked heavyweight has fallen on bad times recently, but now plans to use the tournament to jump start his career:
"This tournament is hugely important for MMA at large and especially for the heavyweight division because this is the greatest collection of heavyweight talent ever assembled for one tournament. This is not just a paper thing. The winner will be the No. 1 heavyweight in the world."
"I’m very excited and glad to be part of it and hope to use it as a stepping-stone to re-establish my career and to re-establish myself as the No. 1 fighter. I haven’t lost in years and don’t plan to now."
Josh "The Babyfaced Assassin" Barnett (29-5) -300
Win Geronimo dos Santos - TKO (Punches) Impact FC 1
Win Siala-Mou Siliga - Submission (Kimura) Dream
Win Gilbert Yvel - Submission (Punches) Affliction
Brett "The Grim" Rogers (11-2) +220
Win Ruben Villareal - Decision (Unanimous) W-1 MMA 6
Loss Alistair Overeem - TKO (Punches) Strikeforce
Loss Fedor Emelianenko - TKO (Punches) Strikeforce
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You've gotta favor Barnett on that side of the tournament
Sure, he might have an insatiable thirst for juice, but I like him as a fighter. I say Barnett gets him to the ground and grinds it out. With all the bad-dudness involved in this tournament it’s hard to root for just one fighter, and I can’t wait to see what happens… kind of rooting for Werdum… kind of thinking Barnett takes on Overeem in the finals, and Overeem takes it home.
"Good People drink good beer." -Hunter S. Thompson
by Captain Beyond on Feb 10, 2011 4:53 AM EST reply actions 2 recs
Even if Barnett wins this,
He won’t be #1 in the world as he claims. That honor belongs to Cain or JDS.
"Turn yourself not away from three best things: Good Thought, Good Word, and Good Deed" - Zoroaster
catch me if you can @ MMA Answers
by SheepleBuster on Feb 10, 2011 7:15 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
If Werdum, Reem or Fedor win they’ll be #1 by virtue of having better wins to get the crown as opposed to anyone on the other side of the bracket.
Food goes in here
by Pandanus on Feb 10, 2011 7:20 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I still put the winner of Cain vs. JDS as #1
if that happens. If Brock wins and somehow beats Cain, I would not put him as #1. JDS has a win over Werdum. Let’s not forget that.
"Turn yourself not away from three best things: Good Thought, Good Word, and Good Deed" - Zoroaster
catch me if you can @ MMA Answers
by SheepleBuster on Feb 10, 2011 7:48 AM EST up reply actions
Gray had a win over Edgar but Edgar got the number 1 spot.
If Werdum wins he’d have 2 wins over Fedor within a year, Overeem and say Barnett within a year.
Food goes in here
by Pandanus on Feb 10, 2011 7:58 AM EST up reply actions 3 recs
If Werdum wins
He’d be borderline #1. It would depend on who the UFC champ is at the time — if it’s Dos Santos, I don’t think you could justify ranking Werdum 1 and Dos Santos 2. And for the record, Maynard should be ranked above Edgar. He’s undefeated and beat Edgar.
Exactly
It’s pretty unrealistic to claim that a tournament that does not include 6 of the Consensus Top 10 (1,2,5,6,8,and9) could reasonably crown the #1 heavyweight. A case could be made for #2, but even that would be debatable.
Except the winner, assuming he comes from the left, will have beaten far better competition than any UFC HW has in their VERY short careers.
by redstorm on Feb 10, 2011 9:43 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Its pretty unrealistic to rank more than 4 of these fighters in the top 10. Fedor Werdum Overeem maybe Silva or Barnett. Arlovski kharitonov Rogers definitely are not top 10
by tremblay6 on Feb 10, 2011 9:43 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Depends who from the UFC you have in the top-10, I don’t see Carwin or Big Nog at this point in his career any more viable top-10 fighters as Rogers or AA. Not to mention Cain Velasquez has yet to run through the gauntlet of top HW’s in the UFC like the winner of this tournament will have done so not sure how them ALL not being top-10 is totally relevant.
So you don’t need to see the quality of their wins as in, whether they eek ot a decision or snap people in half. You don’t need to see how the rankings change before the second or third rounds. You don’t need to see how any of the fights in the UFC go. All that matters is that it says UFC on the contract?
As a fan
it drives me insane that a guy as smart as Barnett is being so obstinate.
by ihateemo on Feb 10, 2011 5:16 AM EST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
Exactly, he claims not to have lost in years?
I think this guy disagrees:
"I fight because I can’t sing, I can’t dance, and it beats working all day. Now ask me a question that doesn’t sound so xxxxxxx stupid." – Phil Baroni
by keyboardwarrior on Feb 10, 2011 9:52 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
He has all the tools to go far and even win the tournament. I can’t see him being submitted by any of the other guys and considering he has only been ko’ed once in his career I’m willing to bet on him.
by Raul_Duke on Feb 10, 2011 5:38 AM EST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
I just hope the Baby Fat Assassin
Will be clean.
by OperationX on Feb 10, 2011 5:56 AM EST reply actions 3 recs
No points for that?
I thought for sure someone would chuckle.
gotta give rogers credit, he goes from KO'ing cans
to fighting arguably the two best HW’s on earth in fedor and the reem
Cum on my face?
When the fuck was he ever #1 anyway?
In 2006 he was a top fighter. In 2011 he’s an irrelevant steroid abuser and I find it sad and pathetic that Strike Force have him involved in this whole thing. It puts a shadow over it IMO.
I think Rogers will put on a fight
I know Rogers looked like shit against Overeem but he looked pretty good against Fedor . I think he’s going to be hard to take down and will give Josh trouble . I can smell an upset !
by JoelMan on Feb 10, 2011 6:17 AM EST reply actions 2 recs
I think it’s simply been to long that we’ve seen Josh fight and that’s why this is even being considered. If he comes back anywhere near his old self, Rogers is out of that tourney.
To save me some time on 25% of all threads, here's the universal answer to the Fedor-debate: Fedor is the most accomplished MMA fighter ever. That is a fact. If he still is the best fighter at this point in time is up for debate.
by KGNLuc on Feb 10, 2011 7:33 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
He barely deserved to win in his last fight. He may of fought two top guys but he looked horrible last fight.
by tremblay6 on Feb 10, 2011 9:46 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
lol
Barnett is so in love with himself.. Even more than Frank Shamrock..
the strikeforce heavyweight tourney would end up a mess
if barnett wins his side and fedor wins his. the damned russians won’t fight “unclean” fighters. looks like fedor’s trying to be mma’s floyd mayweather
by nevergoasstomouth on Feb 10, 2011 6:53 AM EST reply actions
There was no issue with him fighting Barnett going into the fight at Affliction Trilogy.
Food goes in here
by Pandanus on Feb 10, 2011 6:59 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
The difference between fedor caring about roids when it comes to Ubereem and Barnett is that Fedor isn’t afraid to fight Barnett. So tired of m1 getting all the blame, we are talking about a guy that cut his cloth in japan people. He has fought so many juice heads … to call out the one guy that has not failed a drug test is weak at best.
Those odds
are very charitable to Mr. Rogers.
twitter: @thinkpad20
I know im borderline trolling but its for a greater cause.
Please knock Barnett out as early as possible!
I am. I think. I will. - Ayn Rand
But I won’t pick against Jon Jones again until I see him lose. - Kwisatz Haderach
I don't think
That Barnettt knows what “stepping stone” means.
Stepping stone to what? Not to the UFC, we know he’ll never go there.
Not to bigger things in Japanese mma, since it’s in shambles.
Josh, if you were to win this GP, it wouldn’t be a “stepping stone”, it would be the pinnacle achievement of your career.
by CstBoog on Feb 10, 2011 9:22 AM EST via mobile reply actions
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Winning this tournament would arguably put him as the #1 ranked HW in the world and a stepping stone to making alot of money. Right now a HW going from SF to the UFC would be a step down.
how come?
before this “GP” the HW division was pretty good, but now since they’re all fighting each other it determines the #1??
we mutha fuckin thug life riders westsiiiide till we die
by cosmic fist technique on Feb 10, 2011 11:51 AM EST via mobile reply actions
Part of the problem was that a lot of people didn’t realise how good the SF HW division was because the fighters weren’t fighting each other. Another part is that last year SF was still assembling the fighters in the HW division. But also because the winner will have 3 more wins against high end competition.
I don’t think we will know who is #1 until we have seen the fights. If Fedor for example finishes all his fights in under a minute are you goijng to tell me he isn’t #1? If Rogers decisions his way through the tournament I don’t think you can make the case. We need to see the fights first before we can really say.
If he doesn’t fight the #1 or even #2 consensus HW, then yes I could easily justify not ranking him #1. Since most of the top 10 heavyweights are in the UFC and not in this tourament, the winner cannot possibly be #1, now matter how much the Strikeforce fanboys try to spin it.
this
we mutha fuckin thug life riders westsiiiide till we die
by cosmic fist technique on Feb 12, 2011 5:15 PM EST up reply actions
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