Props: MySpace.com
Quoteworthy:
“I read somewhere that I had declined the fight because I would have had to take a pay cut. I suppose others may also formulate some story about me declining the fight for other reasons. I never declined to take this fight. I was never told that I would have any part of my pay reduced since working with Affliction. To my knowledge, no one has been asked to take a pay cut that fights for Affliction. I did not turn down this fight.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion, Pride FC superstar and current Affliction MMA contender Josh Barnett denies several published reports that indicated he turned down an offer to fight Andrei Arlovski at Elite XC: “Heat” at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., on October 4. Elite XC and Affliction caught the industry off guard yesterday with a surprise announcement that Arlovski would take on Roy Nelson on the main card of the CBS telecast. “The Pitbull” and the “Baby Faced Assassin” were supposed to go to battle at Affliction: “Day of Reckoning” on October 11 before the event was postponed. There’s no telling if Arlovski and Barnett will fight anytime soon.
57 Comments »
Honestly I think Barnett is lying, and its hard to say that as a fan of the guy and someone who defends his steroid controversy.
HBO and whoever was co-promoting the Pavlik/Hopkins fight confirmed they were offered Arlovski/Barnett for the undercard and passed on it. In the meantime Barnett got the Sengoku offer, which most likely was in the works as soon as the even got cancelled, and it signed up for the event. Maybe he didnt “officially” pass on the fight but I think he knew what was on the table when he signed to fight on Sengoku’s November card.
Between this, his steroid controversy, his fallout with Pride, his passing on fighting Fedor because he was “too tired”- yet not tired enough to pass on fighting Nog on the same date, makes me think that Josh really is as high maintenance as Dana White makes a point of telling anyone anytime he is asked about him.
Anyway, just my conspiracy theory, could be 100% wrong
Is that why Dana won’t sign Barnett? LOL.
What about Tito for the last 10 years?
Good grief, Charlie Brown!
Barnett always has a way of spinning it to where he is “the good guy” and it’s everyone else’s fault.
i dout he is lying, why wouldn’t he fight him he already was going to.
I don’t see why you all care so much. Its a good thing that Barnett passed on this fight no matter what the reason. The fight was cancelled and then this is announed a week or two before the card is supposed to air live? Thats crazy to tell a figher he won’t be fighting and then request he pick up where he left off with two weeks to train. And on top of that even though the fight would be free for us fans I would rather Arlovski and Barnett use their drawing power in Affliction. Affliction imo is a more important establishment to keep alive rather than EXC.
But they had already trained to fight each other! So both of them would have been able to just pick up were they left off. Barnett does seem like hes always spinning things to his favor. Just think about it, Barnett is saying “his pay would be the same” right? So what difference did it make? If the pay was the same and the opponent was the same, then why not have the fight?
he said it was never offered to him jv, he did not turn it down it was not offered, may elite did not want to pay for both of them and aa has the bigger name in america so they went with him.
The answer to all of those questions are in my first post.
Yeah you make good points. Tom Atencio has said that he had might it apparent that he was searching for a event to place the fight at so I would assume he made both fighters aware of that, but thats not a given.
roy, if Barnett said he was the Queen of England would that be true too? Im not saying he was offered the fight, but if he was, ofcourse he will say he wasnt! Im just agreeing with b.w. on the “spinning things in his favor”
he may do that, but i dont think he was offered the fight untill proven otherwise thats who i see it
Its not a good idea to say something that contradicts what actually happenened in the sport of MMA. For example when Randy stated how much he got paid, Dana said the truth. If Barnett is trying to cover his tracks then EXC will say they asked him to fight and he passed it up. The truth will come out if he’s lying so there doesn’t seem to be a point in lying. Right now the fact that he was even offered the fight is pure speculation so until any real information comes out, your going on pure speculation while Roy is going on the words of someone who would actually know if he was offered the fight or not.
RichFranklinFTW- If you are wondering if Barnett really used steroids, I would like to point out exhibit a: the giant case of “bitch tits’ shown in this photo. haha
Tito wanted to stay in the UFC, Barnett loves Japan
Thanks for the inside info.
Just stating a thought, no where did I say its what actually happened
I could see why BArnett loves Japan. Japanese chicks are hotter!!
Not if you are a breasts and ass man.
no man id say andrei arlovski quit the fight he wanted fedor or a can and thats what he gets. arlovski knows barnett will beat him and barnett didnt turn down fedor. he has been calling him out for a long time now!
heat, so Barnett has been calling Fedor out? So Fedor is the coward for not fighting Barnett? Your saying AA wanted Fedor or a can right? Well who is Barnett fighting in Sengoku, a can right?
when they do fight jv barnett will beat aa, and has the best chance at beating fedor not that he will.
That remains to be seen roy!
when it happens i would love to take that bet with you, i am not saying barnett will kill him or that if aa won it would be a shocker but i see barnett winning it.
IMO your way wrong AA would ko Barnett in a matter of minutes.
if the fight happens bloodymess, please remember that and i would love to take a bet with you as well.
Witness.
Ill take that bet to BLOodyMEss. AA will lose to Barnett.
has arlovski beaten anyone other than fabricio werdum? no he hasnt arlovski = overrated and ben rothwell is a fat mess. tell me you think aa’s next oponent isnt a can and i say your smoking a lil two much of the sweet stuff
and no jv fedor isnt a pussy his manager and pride made those choices.
fedor is a monster he fight combat sambo after mma!
he risks his legend on sambo thats how great he is no whinging about oponents he’l fight whoever
fo real nukka
Barnett can spin it how he wants to, it really does not matter hes a lvl or 2 above AA or any ufc fighter except Big Nog, he might as well just wait it out and fight Fedor/Sergei/Overeem all of which would put AA to sleep or break something.
Anyways Nelson it seems finally gets his top ten fight hope he is in the best shape ever lol! Seriously doh Nelson seems like a cool guy and all but he really needs to train more and lose some of that gut you cant have that much fat and be really successful in mma.
EX-ufc or current ufc fighter***
JV,
Barnett is a level or 2 above AA? What is your reasoning behind this?
So why is Barnett fighting at Sengoku instead of fighting AA??? If Barnett is 2 levels above, AA would have been no problem and the money was the same right?
read what he said jv, he was not offered the fight.
and Barnett has never fought Arlovski. how would one KNOW that he is 2 levels above A.A.? alot of people thought Shogun and Rampage were 5 levels ahead of Forrest Griffin. lets let the fighters determine who is the best. btw, i do think that Barnett is a very talented fighter, but his fans tend to overate him a bit.
not to mention cro-cop.
AA has yet to be tapped out so we’ll see if Barnett can be the fist. Highly doubt it cause AA is going to KO that lard and then he’s going to to show Barnett the canvas as well.
I like Both fighters and I think stylistically it would be an amazing fight. If I had to pick a favorite, I would say Barnett.
As for who has the best shot at beating Fedor, its Barnett for sure. I hope to get to see a rubber match between Barnett and UFC champ Nogueira at some point.
Rate your top 10 HW’s:
1)Fedor
2)Nogueira
3)Barnett
4)arlovski
5)Couture
6)Werdum
7)Hearing
8)Sylvia
9)Kongo
10) ovareem
Match ups I would also like to see:
Sylvia vs. LeBanner
Werdum vs. Nog 2
Mir vs. Werdum
Sylvia vs. Hearing
Kongo vs. Overeem
i agree with most of those john but i think id replace overeem with kharitonov!
7. Brock not Hering
8. Cain… would kill Sylvia
9. Carwin… would GNP overated Kongo
10. Overeem is probably right
Honorable mention: Gonzaga
Oi John! You should put LEsnar in there…’Coz he’s the future!Lesnar over Herring!
Brendan: U r right! I forgot all about Sergei. Shame on me, he is one of my favorite HW’s.
Negation: I can not rank Brock in the top 10 after just 2 fights. I believe Brock has the ability to beat many top 10 fighters but its not fair to the other guys on this list who are PROVEN and Battle tested to have Brock ranked instead of them
Cain, and Carwin also do not have enough fights to be ranked but they will be in the future.
I honestly believe that this is the most accurate top 10 HW rankings!
i still think it’s weird that people refer to him as “former UFC heavyweight champion” when he was stripped of the belt as soon as he “earned” it.
His defense for the steroid positive was the same as Antonio Silva’s and a lot of people think Silva is the right. There is a difference in the time frame that they retested that makes Barnetts case weaker then Silvas, but its an interesting read if you can dig up the interviews. Barnett did come into that fight looking like the incredible hulk but he gradually got more cut an every fight after the Rizzo loss to that point.
Granted that no one who tests positive admits it (sans Hermes Franca)
have you ever noticed how much different his body looks from when he fought in the ufc. a person can do that with the right nutrition and upping their workouts, but man he had love handles that put sylvia and karo to shame. a tale of 2 bodies.
During the Schilt and Hoffman fights he got more cut gradually but you’re right, was a pretty drastic change.
Some dildo on another site that shall remain unamed is talking about how Andrei and the3 other guy’s fight on elitexc could lead up to one of the biggest fights in MMA history….. fedor vs. Kimbo. Give me a break.
That was purely the writers hypothetical idea that is now spreading onto forums and some mma sites as hard news.
I was fully aware it was hypothetical. I just think it is ridiculous that a writer who would ( I assume) consider himself knowledgable of MMA would think a possible 15 sec bout to be considered one of the biggest fights in MMA history. I had no idea some sites were posting it as hard news.
Yeah I was pretty shocked as well
Kimbo would not be conscious for longer than 1 minute.
Them damn junkies.
As much as i like Arlovski, im not about to say that i think Barnett is lying. I dont think he was offered the fight, or he would have taken it.
They will fight soon enough anyways so who cares
I hope so… this will be a very interesting fight?
1)Fedor
2)Nogueira
3)Barnett
4)arlovski
5)Werdum
6)Overeem
7)Couture
8)Aleks
9)Sylvia
10)Kongo
Soon enough we will all find out how good AA really is he will either fight Barnett Fedor Overeem Sergei soon enough. Hopefully Overeem im dying to see him whoop some ass hopefully ass not nutts this time LOL!!!