About Josh Barnett
American mixed martial artist, submission grappler, professional wrestler, and color commentator Joshua Lawrence Barnett was born on November 10, 1977. His estimated net worth is $1.8 million. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett is currently a Bellator competitor.
The heavyweight division is challenging to find guys with top-tier guard submission abilities. Therefore, it provides a huge problem for opponents when a man, like Josh Barnett, has that special quality and also weighs 250 pounds.
The fact is that there aren’t many imposing, technically proficient heavyweight MMA competitors.
On January 11, 1997, Barnett defeated Chris Charnos through a choke in his MMA debut. After that, he won four more fights in a row before facing Dan Severn, a UFC Hall of Famer. At Super Brawl 16, Barnett armbarted him to win, and the UFC contacted him.
Barnett competed in five highly publicized fights during his UFC tenure. He won by TKO over Gan McGee in his UFC debut. After losing to Pedro Rizzo in the second round by KO, he won three straight UFC fights, the last of which was a TKO victory over Randy Couture at UFC 36 for the heavyweight title. Barnett, who is 24 years old, became the youngest UFC champion ever with that victory. However, problems are coming.
After his match against Couture, Barnett lost his heavyweight belt later that year after testing positive for anabolic steroids. At his hearing, Barnett denied using steroids, but his fighting license was nonetheless temporarily suspended.
After his suspension, Barnett went on to win five straight fights in Japan while still working as a professional wrestler for the New Japan Pro Wrestling company. And at that point, a significant MMA company other than the UFC called.
On October 31, 2004, Barnett faced off against then-star Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a PRIDE match. When he swiftly defeated Cro Cop, he simultaneously fractured and dislocated his shoulder, necessitating surgery as well as six months of recovery. After that, Barnett suffered defeats to Cro Cop at both PRIDE: Final Conflict Absolute and in his rematch (decision) (submission due to strikes). However, during his PRIDE career, he collected a 6-3 record, which included victories over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (although he also suffered a loss to Nogueira), Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Pawel Nastula, and Hidehiko Yoshida.
Barnett has experience in catch wrestling. His takedowns, takedown defense, submissions from the top position, and submissions from the guard are all great. Additionally, he has developed his hitting skills to the point that he is now above average in that area as well.
Barnett is simply not the type of fighter to stand by and watch. He actively seeks for opportunities to end fights, and he frequently succeeds.
On July 22, 2009, Affliction head man Tom Atencio informed MMA Fanhouse that Barnett had tested positive for a prohibited substance once more, this time just before a matchup with Fedor Emelianenko for the WAMMA Heavyweight title at Affliction: Trilogy. This event led to the cancellation of the Barnett-Emilianenko fight.
Barnett won the first Metamoris Heavyweight Championship in 2014. Josh Barnett’s net worth is projected to be $1.8 million as of 2023. He started off doing color commentary for the weekly NJPW show on AXS TV in the US.
