Josh Barnett’s mixed martial arts (MMA) career is at a standstill at the moment, due to a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) violation “The Baby Faced Assassin” was notified of back in December of 2016.
Barnett has maintained his innocence and revealed that his positive drug test was all due to tainted supplements, which were tested by USADA, as well, and found to be laced with a banned substance.
But while the towering Heavyweight sits back to see what will happen regarding his fighting future on the USADA front, he was adamant in an interview with MMA Weekly the his fighting days are far from over.
“I’m not finished with it. I still have a lot within MMA that I want to do. There’s still a desire in me to go out and fight. I know that it is going to be a much smaller window for me in that there’s so many other things in my life. At the moment, I know the desire is there to compete, but the desire to structure my life around training camps and all that at the moment just isn’t there. I’ll get out there and spar and work with people, so it’s not as if I don’t train or still enjoy training – because I do very much – but to make that commitment in every way that’s necessary to compete in MMA, not yet. But it is still open.”
Josh hasn’t competed inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Octagon since choking out Andrei Arlovski at UFC Fight Night 93 in September of 2016, which was his first win since 2015.
While he’s not exactly being a coach potato when it comes to his sporadic training sessions, Barnett (35-8) has been staying very busy with other ventures in his life, including a commentator role for New Japan Pro Wrestling and AXS TV.
If and when he does return, can the 40-year old combat sports veteran make another run in a division filled with plenty of young, hard-hitting up-and-comers?