Last week, we expressed some concern that Josh Barnett‘s application for a license in Texas was still incomplete, just ten days before he was scheduled to throw down against Brett Rogers at “Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum” in Dallas. But it turned out there was a logical explanation for Barnett’s licensing status that involved pre-fight medicals, and the Babyface Assassin was actually among several other fighters on the card whose applications were incomplete as of last week.
And now it’s official. As MMAJunkie reports, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has issued Barnett a license to fight this Saturday:
Barnett’s license is good for one year…As earlier reported, Barnett was required to provide the TDLR with a clean drug test in addition to the usual pre-fight paperwork as a condition of his licensure. Strikeforce is conducting independent drug testing at the event…
[TDLR Public Information Officer Susan] Stanford said earlier that Barnett’s history in California is not a factor in his application for licensure in Texas because the fighter is not currently under administrative suspension on a registry of fighters maintained by the Association of Boxing Commissions.
So that’s that. You can all kiss Josh’s ass now.
Related: For the remaining fights in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, a “sudden death” fourth round will be added in case a fight is ruled a draw after three rounds. (On Saturday, this would hypothetically apply to Barnett vs. Rogers and Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum.) The good news is, we won’t have to worry about a sketchy fourth judge showing up to advance one of the fighters; that idea has been thankfully nixed.