Josh Barnett just can’t catch a break. Sure, he failed a steroid test and lent a helping hand in the destruction of an entire MMA organization, but Barnett is ready to put all that behind him and move on with his life. The only problem, as Barnett tells our friend Ben Fowlkes over at MMA Fighting, is that nobody wants to fight him.
I know you make a lot of money pro wrestling in Japan, but you obviously still want to compete. I mean, you’re fighting guys no one’s heard of, you’re showing up at regional grappling tournaments. Do you feel like you need to be competing against top ten guys right now in MMA in order to fulfill that competitive desire?
No. I mean, I’d like to, but that’s not up to me. The minute I start running around and trying to make fights happen with other people, that puts the ball in their court. I’m not here to try and put someone on a pedestal and give them the ability to get the most out of this. I speak for myself, my record speaks for itself, and my ability speaks for itself. At some point, these guys are going to have to fight me.
According to K-1, when they were booking me for the last Dream fight, a whole list of people, top ten and otherwise, refused to fight me. So what am I supposed to do in that situation? I’m not going to not fight. I’m here to beat the crap out of people. That’s why I exist. So it may be tomorrow or it may be next year, but I’ll get my hands on these guys some time.
There’s a lot more in the interview, including Barnett’s thoughts on his upcoming fight in Australia.