Josh Barnett – photo by Esther Lin for Strikeforce
Heavyweight Josh ‘The Warmaster’ Barnett (31-6) will appear one more time inside of a Strikeforce cage when he takes on Austrian heavyweight Nandor ‘The Hun’ Guelmino (11-3) at the upcoming Strikeforce: Champions event scheduled for this January.
News of the matchup was first announced by MMAjunkie.com this morning (Thursday 29 Nov.) after learning of the bout through sources close to the fighters.
Strikeforce: Champions is expected to take place on January 12, 2013 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The main card will air on Showtime with the prelim card expected to air live on Showtime Extreme. The card is quickly filling up with other bouts confirmed and new matchups announced.
Barnett is coming off a loss, having suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Daniel Cormier last May in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Final. The loss ended an eight fight win streak for Barnett who earned wins over Sergei Kharitonov and Brett Rogers in the Grand Prix to secure his spot in the final.
Guelmino will make his promotion debut in Strikeforce’s last show and will walk into this bout with a seven fight win streak under his belt. The Austrian fighter was last in action last month winning a decision at a WFC 17 event in Slovenia. So far ‘The Hun’ has earned three finishes by (T)KO, six by submission and two by decision along with one draw in his pro-career.