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Josh Barnett (born November 10, 1977, in Seattle, Washington) is an American heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter and a professional wrestler. He has an MMA record of 21-3-0 as of July 2006.
Biography
Josh Barnett is a graduate of Ballard High School.
Barnett made history as the youngest UFC heavyweight champion ever after defeating Randy Couture in early 2002. Later that year, the title was stripped from Barnett after he tested positive for anabolic steroids. His fighting license was temporarily suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
At this point, Josh Barnett began his career overseas as a professional wrestler in the New Japan Pro Wrestling organization. He achieved moderate success there and would continue to compete in MMA fights. In his fight on October 31, 2004 with Mirko Filipovic, he suffered a freak shoulder injury that required surgery and over six months of rehab. His first fight back post-injury was a rematch against Filipovic, which he lost by unanimous decision. He came back with a win against Aleksander Emelianenko (brother of current PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko), whom he submitted with a keylock in the second round during the PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix (official title is PRIDE Total Elimination Absolute). Most recently he submitted Mark Hunt via kimura in PRIDE Critical Countdown Absolute.
Career Highlights
- Defeats Juha Tuhkasaari, John Marsh, and Bobby Hoffman to win the SuperBrawl 13 heavyweight tournament
- Beats Dan Severn at SuperBrawl 16 by submission* Fights Pedro Rizzo at UFC 30 in his big break-through fight
- Defeats Semmy Schilt by submission at UFC 32
- Captures the UFC Heavyweight title by defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36
- Hands Jimmy Ambriz his first career loss at the' NJPW - Ultimate Crush' event in May of 2003
- Submits Yuki Kondo at the 'Pancrase 10th Anniversary Show' to become the King of Pancrase Openweight Champion
- Submits Yoshiki Takahashi at the' NJPW - Ultimate Crush' event in October of 2003
- Gets a submission victory over Semmy Schilt at the 'Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003-Inoki Festival' event
- Defeats Aleksander Emelianenko in the OWGP
- Defeats Mark Hunt in the OWGP
Otaku
Barnett is also known as an otaku to his Japanese fans. Famously travelling to the Akihabara district of Tokyo in order to purchase games, figures, etc, and also using the theme song "Ai o torimodose" from the anime Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) as his entrance theme. At PRIDE Total Elimination Absolute, Barnett called out current PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko, with a famous quote from the anime, "omae wa mou shindeiru", translated to "You're already dead".
See also
External links
1977 births | Living people | American professional wrestlers | American mixed martial artists
"Josh Barnett"