Dana White Open To Josh Barnett In The UFC

Having picked up three failed drug tests for performance enhancing drugs in his career and a history of minor conflicts with the UFC and president Dana White, there was some question as to if Josh Barnett would be welcomed back to the Octagon should he beat Daniel Cormier to win the Strikeforce Grand Prix. In a recent interview with HDNet's Ron Kruck, White put any question of if Barnett would have a roster spot available to him with a Grand Prix win.

From the interview (transcription via MMAMania):

The way that Showtime wants to do it is when that fight finally happens, whoever wins it, they wanna do another fight on Showtime, so that guy would probably come to the UFC. We'll see what happens, you know? Josh and I have been playing nice with each other for a little while, since he got into the UFC. It's more than just, 'Does he win? Does he do this?' You gotta be able to come to terms with the guy and be able to deal with him. If he wins the fight, I can't see why he wouldn't come here, unless we weren't able to make a deal with him.

There is, of course, risk to Barnett back in the UFC. Another failed test wouldn't just reflect badly on the UFC. With three bad tests, there is a known risk to doing business with Josh. It would reflect very poorly on the promotion should Josh ever fail another drug test after a high profile fight.