With a positive steroid test from 2002 still dogging his career, fans of Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-finalist Josh ‘War Master’ Barnett (30-5) should have a sense of satisfaction knowing that the Ohio State Commission has confirmed his licensing for the upcoming September 10 Strikeforce event.
OAC Executive Director Bernie Profato confirmed the news with MMAjunkie.com on Monday, going so far as to commend Barnett on his cooperation with their pre-fight testing.
“In fairness to this young man, he cooperated 110 percent,” Profato said.
“So we had him tested, and we’re satisfied that he’s clean, as far as coming into the fight, and we’re going to test all four of [the grand-prix fighters] plus a couple of random fights at the event,” he said.
“He hasn’t done anything for us not to issue him a license,” Profato said. “He’s met all the requirements we’ve asked of him.”
Barnett is scheduled to meet Russian heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov in the main event of the Sept. 10 of the World Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-finals at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. The other semi-final bout sees Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva face Daniel Cormier.