Filed under: Strikeforce
CINCINNATI — Like any good fighter beef, they can’t agree on how it all got started. If you ask Josh Barnett, he’ll say he was complimenting Antonio Silva‘s performance against Fedor Emelianenko, then woke up the next morning to read reports of Silva bashing him in the press. If you ask “Bigfoot” Silva, he’ll say he had only a mild dislike for Barnett until he crossed the line by commenting on Silva’s acromegaly.
“In the beginning I found him to be an anti-social guy,” Silva said through a translator. “I talk to everybody, shake everybody’s hand, and he wasn’t like that. After I commented on that, he moved into commenting on my condition, and that’s not something he should do.”
Barnett’s response?
“I didn’t know gigantism made you so sensitive.”
Of the four fighters left in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix, Silva and Barnett are the only two who seem to have any personal animosity against one another. A little strange, considering they’re not even fighting each other. Not yet, anyway.
Barnett will take on Sergei Kharitonov in the semifinal round of the tournament on Saturday night, while Silva has a date with Alistair Overeem’s replacement, former U.S. Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier. So how did these two even end up in this minor feud, when they couldn’t possibly meet until the finals?
“What it came down to was, he didn’t know me enough to know whether I was friendly or unfriendly, and he just started going off,” Barnett said, tracing the beef’s genesis to a post-fight press conference after the opening round of the tournament in New Jersey.
“Ten minutes before he got to the podium I was talking about how much he’d improved as a fighter and how tough he was, so on and so forth,” Barnett said. “Then the next day I read the internet news and I’m going, what? He was saying I hate Brazilians, saying I’m a jerk, saying all sorts of stuff when he doesn’t know me. But hey, I’m one to mess with somebody, so I said, sorry I’m not trying to be your best friend.”
Barnett has predicted a win for Cormier on Saturday night, citing the smaller man’s wrestling skills as a difference-maker. Even Silva admits he had to change everything about his preparation when his opponent changed from Overeem, a bulky kickboxer, to Cormier, a smaller, more agile wrestler.
“Things changed completely. My plan [for Overeem] was to take him down and get on top of him. Now my game plan is to stay standing or impose my jiu-jitsu. It really changed things.”
On the other side of the bracket, Silva said Barnett is in for a tough night, though he gives him the slight edge over Kharitonov.
“They’re two great fighters and it’s going to be a great fight, but I’m rooting for [Barnett]. I want to fight him. I bet he’s not thinking like that. I bet he’s hoping that he doesn’t have to face me in the finals.”
In a way, Barnett admitted, he’s almost right.
“I could go on about this,” Barnett said. “I don’t care about fighting him or anybody. Already I’ve given him too much press.”