Tag: brettrogers

Josh Barnett: ‘Give Me My Moment, and I’ll Give You What You Want’

Filed under: StrikeforceDALLAS — There was hardly a moment in Josh Barnett’s Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout with Brett Rogers where he wasn’t in the driver’s seat, so it was only fitting that he seized control of the post-fight i…

Filed under:

DALLAS — There was hardly a moment in Josh Barnett‘s Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal bout with Brett Rogers where he wasn’t in the driver’s seat, so it was only fitting that he seized control of the post-fight interview as well.

“Gus, I love you. I know you have a job to do,” Barnett told Showtime commentator Gus Johnson in the cage following his second-round arm-triangle submission victory over Rogers. “But then again so do I, and I think the people want to hear what I have to say right now.”

What followed was yet another monologue from Barnett about the state of his career and his future goals, only this one also included references to stacking up skulls and “standing on top of a pile of bodies with gold in [his] hand.”

This, Barnett said in the post-fight press conference, is the kind of thing we should all just get used to now that North American MMA has an entertainer like him back in the big leagues.

“I’m not here to do everything that everyone tells me to,” Barnett said. “I’m here to entertain. I don’t need my hand held. I don’t need to be directed. I don’t need to have anybody try to prompt me to give something interesting. Just give me my moment, give me my time, and I’ll give you what you want and then some. People want to hear what I’ve got to say, and if anybody wants to see how I finished the fight, hit rewind on the DVR. You can check it out as much as you want.”

Barnett had little trouble dispatching the less experienced Rogers after taking him down easily in both the first and second rounds. Even with a dominant position for most of round one, however, he said he had to be careful not to get too reckless looking for the finish and, in the process, put his chances of continuing on in the tournament at risk.

“You go in there, you have a strategy. I stuck to it for the most part, but once I got in there it became a matter of also making him drown underneath me — taking his wind, taking his spirit, taking his energy, and doing it without any sort of injury, because this is a tournament. I have another fight, and I have another fight after that, so it’s important to be very tactical and very strategic about how you take these guys out.”

But Barnett’s strategic approach wasn’t an immediate hit with the Texas fans, who booed his first-round performance. That made for a somewhat inauspicious start for a fighter who prides himself on being such a showman, but Barnett insisted that it never bothered him.

“You can’t listen to the crowd very much. You got to go out there, you got to do your thing. And you know what? The crowd can boo you one minute and cheer you the next,” he said.

Now Barnett moves on to face Russian striker Sergei Kharitonov in the semi-final round in the fall. Kharitonov fought his way in with a knockout win over Andrei Arlovski in his quarterfinal fight, and Barnett expects him to be a tougher opponent than Rogers, he said.

“[Kharitonov] is a more well-rounded fighter. He’s a much better boxer. In terms of technical, very sound boxing technique. I don’t know if he’s got the slugging ability — in fact, I think Brett might actually be a little bit faster than Sergei, to a point — but Sergei has a chin of granite. He’s got a better ground game too, so I’ve got to train hard.”

For Barnett — who’s had a rocky few years after a positive drug test torpedoed his hopes of a high-profile fight with Fedor Emelianenko in the now defunct Affliction organization — the Strikeforce Grand Prix represents a golden opportunity. Not only does it give him the chance to prove himself as a top heavyweight, it also offers him some hope of mending fences with UFC president Dana White now that the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, owns Strikeforce.

It’s a chance he may never get again if he squanders it this time, and no one seems more aware of that fact than Barnett.

“This is my chance,” he said. “This is my triple crown. This is my WGP. This is my opportunity to go out there and display myself as one of the best heavyweights who’s ever walked the earth. I know it, but people want to see it. They want me to prove it. Fine. As long as you can line people up against me, I’m going to go out there and keep taking them out. That’s my job. I’m born and bred to fight. So anybody that thinks they want to kick my a–, make them sign so I can go prove them different.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

At Strikeforce Workouts, Josh Barnett Decides to Put on a Show

Filed under: ,

DALLAS – Don’t come to a pre-fight media workout expecting to get a glimpse of a fighter’s game plan. Don’t even come looking for much of an actual workout. Certainly don’t come looking to be entertained.

Not unless Josh Barnett is on the schedule, apparently. Then come early, get a good seat, and enjoy the show.

On Thursday afternoon in a Hilton conference room, Barnett took an event that’s usually a forgettable photo op and turned it into sports theater. Drawing upon his extensive experience as a pro wrestler in Japan, he worked a full match with his sparring partner – “The Hammer” – on the small blue mat where other fighters had contented themselves with a few short minutes of shadow-boxing or mitt work.

Which is not to say he confined himself to that small mat. As Barnett and “Hammer” cranked one another’s arms and raked each other’s eyes, the action spilled out into the gallery, with Barnett tossing his counterpart into a punching bag at one point, just because. Because why not make full use of your environment?

Whether Barnett was trying to entertain us or himself, it was hard to say. When he finally ended the match (a brutal clothesline led to a figure-four leglock that forced “Hammer” to tap out, somewhat unfairly since there was no ring rope for him to crawl to or devious manager to help him), Barnett held court on the mat and cut a WWE-quality promo for members of the media.

The subject of this soliloquy? Hard times. And, to a lesser extent, the degree to which Brett Rogers does and does not understand them. For those of you who want to appreciate it in text form, it went a little something like this:

“Hard times have been on Josh Barnett. Dealing with athletic commissions. Everybody’s saying, ‘You did this and you did that. You’re the problem for this.’ That’s hard times. Hard times on my family. Hard times on my friends. Hard times on me. Hard times is not being able to get a fight. Hard times is, knowing the company, waking up one day and seeing they been sold to your competitor, not knowing what you’re going to do. Where’s my contract at? Where’s my money? Where’s my security? Who says I’m going to that shot now? Having that on your mind, that’s hard times.

And then, you get this big old Brett Rogers in front of you. He thinks he knows what’s tough. He thinks he’s going to make a name off of my head, so I got to get up every morning, break of dawn. I got to get those running shoes on, hit that concrete, get those miles under my feet. My knees are aching. My body is sore. I got guys like Hammer beating on me every single day. I got my body breaking down, my mind getting pushed. Feeling the effects of fourteen years of fighting. Feeling the effects of trying to put yourself in the best position you can be in. Wake up every day having to deal with that? That’s what hard times is about.

But I’m going to tell you what, Brett Rogers. Come Saturday, the American Airlines Arena, I’m going to give you a lesson in hard times. I’m going to take all that anger and all that pain – everything that I have been through, everything my family has been through, everything my coaches have been through (Amen) – and I’m going to put that on you. I’m going to put that on you, Brett Rogers, and I’m going to show you exactly what hard times is about. Because when you get in the ring with Josh Barnett – wooooooo! – who wants to see that, brother? Not you, Brett Rogers. Not you. You don’t want to see that. You don’t want to see that.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you end an open workout. With a 350-word rant.

For the sake of comparison, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was 278 words. Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy? 277 words. And neither Lincoln nor Shakespeare knew a wristlock from a wristwatch, so Barnett has that on them, too.

This, obviously, is the character of Josh Barnett. The persona. The real person is intelligent, witty, sarcastic, and self-effacing (when it serves him), but he also has a better grasp on English grammar.

And yet, in a way the Barnett character addressed the issues plaguing the real Barnett in a way that felt more genuine than what we’ve gotten used to hearing from him lately. If you bring up athletic commissions, failed steroid tests, or his rocky relationship with UFC president Dana White to the real Barnett, you can practically see the protective wall going up. The answers that come back to you are pre-packaged, and the questions, he doesn’t mind letting you know, are more than a little annoying to him.

Even though the “Hard Times” speech is a performance (and a pretty solid one, actually), it also feels weirdly real. Barnett actually has gone through some hard times lately, and even if they’re hard times mostly of his own making, the frustration is probably no less genuine. Why not turn them into a subject for this pro wrestler schtick? Maybe it’s even easier to confront it head-on when he does it this way, as an entertainer.

And make no mistake, Barnett is a born entertainer. Both Strikeforce and the UFC could use more guys like him, and he knows it. As long as he can back it in up in the cage, his talents as a showman may prove to be the saving grace at this pivotal time in a troubled career.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: ,

DALLAS – Don’t come to a pre-fight media workout expecting to get a glimpse of a fighter’s game plan. Don’t even come looking for much of an actual workout. Certainly don’t come looking to be entertained.

Not unless Josh Barnett is on the schedule, apparently. Then come early, get a good seat, and enjoy the show.

On Thursday afternoon in a Hilton conference room, Barnett took an event that’s usually a forgettable photo op and turned it into sports theater. Drawing upon his extensive experience as a pro wrestler in Japan, he worked a full match with his sparring partner – “The Hammer” – on the small blue mat where other fighters had contented themselves with a few short minutes of shadow-boxing or mitt work.

Which is not to say he confined himself to that small mat. As Barnett and “Hammer” cranked one another’s arms and raked each other’s eyes, the action spilled out into the gallery, with Barnett tossing his counterpart into a punching bag at one point, just because. Because why not make full use of your environment?

Whether Barnett was trying to entertain us or himself, it was hard to say. When he finally ended the match (a brutal clothesline led to a figure-four leglock that forced “Hammer” to tap out, somewhat unfairly since there was no ring rope for him to crawl to or devious manager to help him), Barnett held court on the mat and cut a WWE-quality promo for members of the media.

The subject of this soliloquy? Hard times. And, to a lesser extent, the degree to which Brett Rogers does and does not understand them. For those of you who want to appreciate it in text form, it went a little something like this:

“Hard times have been on Josh Barnett. Dealing with athletic commissions. Everybody’s saying, ‘You did this and you did that. You’re the problem for this.’ That’s hard times. Hard times on my family. Hard times on my friends. Hard times on me. Hard times is not being able to get a fight. Hard times is, knowing the company, waking up one day and seeing they been sold to your competitor, not knowing what you’re going to do. Where’s my contract at? Where’s my money? Where’s my security? Who says I’m going to that shot now? Having that on your mind, that’s hard times.

And then, you get this big old Brett Rogers in front of you. He thinks he knows what’s tough. He thinks he’s going to make a name off of my head, so I got to get up every morning, break of dawn. I got to get those running shoes on, hit that concrete, get those miles under my feet. My knees are aching. My body is sore. I got guys like Hammer beating on me every single day. I got my body breaking down, my mind getting pushed. Feeling the effects of fourteen years of fighting. Feeling the effects of trying to put yourself in the best position you can be in. Wake up every day having to deal with that? That’s what hard times is about.

But I’m going to tell you what, Brett Rogers. Come Saturday, the American Airlines Arena, I’m going to give you a lesson in hard times. I’m going to take all that anger and all that pain – everything that I have been through, everything my family has been through, everything my coaches have been through (Amen) – and I’m going to put that on you. I’m going to put that on you, Brett Rogers, and I’m going to show you exactly what hard times is about. Because when you get in the ring with Josh Barnett – wooooooo! – who wants to see that, brother? Not you, Brett Rogers. Not you. You don’t want to see that. You don’t want to see that.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you end an open workout. With a 350-word rant.

For the sake of comparison, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was 278 words. Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy? 277 words. And neither Lincoln nor Shakespeare knew a wristlock from a wristwatch, so Barnett has that on them, too.

This, obviously, is the character of Josh Barnett. The persona. The real person is intelligent, witty, sarcastic, and self-effacing (when it serves him), but he also has a better grasp on English grammar.

And yet, in a way the Barnett character addressed the issues plaguing the real Barnett in a way that felt more genuine than what we’ve gotten used to hearing from him lately. If you bring up athletic commissions, failed steroid tests, or his rocky relationship with UFC president Dana White to the real Barnett, you can practically see the protective wall going up. The answers that come back to you are pre-packaged, and the questions, he doesn’t mind letting you know, are more than a little annoying to him.

Even though the “Hard Times” speech is a performance (and a pretty solid one, actually), it also feels weirdly real. Barnett actually has gone through some hard times lately, and even if they’re hard times mostly of his own making, the frustration is probably no less genuine. Why not turn them into a subject for this pro wrestler schtick? Maybe it’s even easier to confront it head-on when he does it this way, as an entertainer.

And make no mistake, Barnett is a born entertainer. Both Strikeforce and the UFC could use more guys like him, and he knows it. As long as he can back it in up in the cage, his talents as a showman may prove to be the saving grace at this pivotal time in a troubled career.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Brett Rogers Explains Why He’s a Changed Man Mentally and Physically

Filed under: , , , ,

DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to Brett Rogers on Wednesday about his heavyweight grand prix against Josh Barnett on Saturday night at Overeem vs. Werdum, how he has matured as a fighter since his back-to-back losses in Strikeforce, his take on the fight and more.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: , , , ,

DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to Brett Rogers on Wednesday about his heavyweight grand prix against Josh Barnett on Saturday night at Overeem vs. Werdum, how he has matured as a fighter since his back-to-back losses in Strikeforce, his take on the fight and more.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Strikeforce Grand Prix Semifinals Likely in Early Fall, Finals Could Be on PPV

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsIt’s been a wild ride for the Strikeforce promotion over the last few months, launching a Heavyweight Grand Prix to strong fanfare, then getting sold off to UFC parent company Zuffa, and now finding their way in a brave ne…

Filed under: ,

It’s been a wild ride for the Strikeforce promotion over the last few months, launching a Heavyweight Grand Prix to strong fanfare, then getting sold off to UFC parent company Zuffa, and now finding their way in a brave new MMA world.

On June 18 in Dallas, the promotion will present the second set of Grand Prix quarterfinals, finally completing the first round that began back in February. And according to company general manager Scott Coker, after the completion of this set of matches, Strikeforce hopes to host the tournament semifinals sometime in the early fall.

That will come as good news to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Sergei Kharitonov, who have been awaiting the date of their next matchups since beating Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski, respectively, on Feb. 12.

According to Strikeforce bracketing, Silva will meet the winner of June 18’s Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum match, while Kharitonov will face the Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers victor from the same night.

While Strikeforce originally hoped to complete the tournament by the end of 2011, on Tuesday, Coker acknowledged that due to ongoing issues, that might not be possible, though they still hoped to pull it off.

“That was the original plan, but if it carries over into 2012 and we can finish it in a calendar year, that’s sufficient,” he said.

Last weekend, Coker told MMA Fighting’s Matt Erickson that the promotion pushed the semis back for practical reasons, and that they are still considering the possibility of broadcasting the finals on pay-per-view.

“We were originally going to have (the semifinals) in August, but we felt like it’s too close to the June fight,” he said. “So it’ll be sometime in the early fall. And then the finals will be the beginning of next year. We had a conversation with the fight team and Showtime, and they were fine with it. [Doing the finals as a pay-per-view is] the dialogue – there’s definitely a good possibility. But it’s not been decided yet.”

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Josh Barnett: I’ve Considered Walking Away From Organized MMA

Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsIt took Josh Barnett a little bit to clear the cobwebs and open up, but when he did on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” he had plenty to say.

Barnett, in the studio with host Ariel Helwani for Monday’s show, touched o…

Filed under: ,

Josh BarnettIt took Josh Barnett a little bit to clear the cobwebs and open up, but when he did on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” he had plenty to say.

Barnett, in the studio with host Ariel Helwani for Monday’s show, touched on a host of subjects, from his current suspension by the California State Athletic Commission for a third positive test for banned substances to his upcoming participation in Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament.

But perhaps most surprisingly, Barnett said he has considered walking away from the sport.

“The thought has crossed my mind to quit even dealing with organized mixed martial arts in general and just fight my own fights, however I feel like,” Barnett said. “The fact of the matter is, I fight because I have to – because it’s a thing that drives me, not because of anything else.”