This Saturday night, June 18, 2011, Josh Barnett will indeed be fighting on the card. His license was approved in the state of Texas, and he is ready to go. He will be facing Brett Rogers in a quarterfinals matchup in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Barnett is a veteran and has fought all over the world. He hasn’t fought top competition in a few years, but if he fights anything like he has fought in his past then he should have no troubles in making a deep run in the tourney.
He is a very complete fighter; he is a boxer and submission wrestler. He is a former Pancrase Openweight Champion, as well as a former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Barnett won gold medals at the 2009 World Jiu Jitsu Championships and also at the 2010 Gracie US Nationals.
Brett Rogers came up in the MMA world and caught everyone’s attention by knocking out Andrei Arlovski. After that win, he was thrown into the lions den and had to face the “Greatest of All Time” Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem.
Those fights didn’t turn out so well for him, and he went outside of Strikeforce for his next bout and defeated Rueben Villareal via Decision.
In the stand up game, Barnett has the much better form and uses his strikes to set up his take downs. The ground game is very unknown for Rogers, the last that people can remember is him being rag dolled by Overeem.
It has been a while since Rogers has fought, and with the postponing of the event, he has an advantage to work on his wrestling even more.
Everyone knows what Barnett is capable of, but is he going to be able to perform up to his abilities?
Rogers has the power advantage in his hands, odds are Barnett will have him down and mounted before he can land a solid strike. This is just an overall bad matchup for Brett Rogers.
My prediction:
It will start out partially slow, odds are Barnett will push the pace. Barnett will get Rogers to the ground, then it is all Barnett from there. Barnett will finish him with some ground and pound in the first round.
Josh Barnett has so much talent. He has had problems in the past that have truly prevented him from achieving greatness in the sport. Next, will be a slideshow of video’s showing the 10 guys that could’ve been so much more than what they accomplished in their careers.
*These video’s are in no particular order, just showcasing the 10 guys who could’ve been more than they were*