Josh "The Baby-Faced Assassin" Barnett

While he's inactive, I thought it only fair that we take a look at the career of one of the sport's greatest heavyweights thus far. On a personal note, the first UFC event I saw was UFC 36 where Barnett defeated Randy Couture, though Barnett was later stripped of his title after testing positive for anabolic steriods. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself, I should start at the beginning.

Josh Barnett made his mixed martial-arts debut after coming over from New Japan Professional Wrestling. He brought incredible strength, a strong catch wrestling backround (which is a style of submission fighting based in leglocks) and charisma otherwise unmatched in the heavyweight division.

His first fight was in the United Full Contact Federation on January 11th, 1997, where he fought Chris Charnos and chalked up his first win with a choke. UFCF only did one round fights, in the traditional Vale Tudo style that the UFC had been using as well, and would continue to use until it started becoming heavily politicized.

After he defeated Bob Gilstrap in his second MMA fight, Barnett would leave UFCF for new opposition, moving to Superbrawl, where he would win four straight fights, three of the four by submission. Of his short, though impressive, Superbrawl career, Barnett would fight John Marsh (a 7-6 lifetime fighter, but who stepped in the ring with great fighters like Ricco Rodriguez, Vladimir Matyushenko and Jeremy Horn), underground legend Bobby "The Bad Seed" Hoffman (36-10-1) and future UFC Hall of Famer Dan "The Beast" Severn (79-15-7).

Barnett was quickly snatched up by the UFC after he submitted the former heavyweight champion Severn with an armbar. He was noted for his ability to use very effective, very technical submissions, though he was a large, very strong fighter. He made his debut against giant Gan McGee, who stood 6'10 and was a perfect 7-0 up to his fight with Barnett. McGee was also making his debut.

Barnett wasn't a favorite going into his fight, as no one really knew anything about either fighter, except that they were both undefeated and coming out of smaller shows. The two went to war at UFC 28 High Stakes and 4:34 into the second round, Barnett TKO'd McGee.

Barnett would fight a very tough up-and-comer Pedro "The Rock Rizzo, who would go on to become a staple of the UFC heavyweight division. It would be Barnett's first loss, and at 4:31 in the second Rizzo hit Barnett with a stiff punch that put him out of the fight.

Barnett went on a short, three fight tear, destroying 7 foot Dutchman Semmy Schilt, Bobby Hoffman and then, in his title shot against champion Randy Couture, he decimated Couture.

Barnett didn't hold the hardware for long, and it was taken away after he tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Barnett returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling for an MMA fight and destroyed Jimmy Ambriz. He then fought in Pancrase and defeated Yuki Kondo. The jumping around wasn't complete, and he fought and beat Semmy Schilt and Renee Rooze in Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye and K-1.

Barnett was then picked up by Pride and set to fight Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic, a kickboxer coming in from K-1 with a reputation for brutal left-leg kicks. Barnett would drop back to back fights to CroCop, the first one by submission after taking a barrage of kicks from CroCop's left leg and the second by unanimous decision.

Barnett's career in PRIDE would be a continued success and he would destroy Kazuhiro Nakamura, Russian giant Aleksander Emelianenko and K-1 champion Mark Hunt all by submission.

The vitories over Emelianenko and Hunt would be his first two fights in the PRIDE open weight Grand Prix, and the finale in Japan would prove to be a war for Barnett. After winning a close split decision to former heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Barnett face his archrival CroCop and lost when a kick to his ribs left him unable to continue.

At the PRIDE debut in Las Vegas, he would defeat Judoka Pawel Nastula with a toe hold submission.

While Barnett lost his rematch to Nogueira at the New Year's Eve event called PRIDE Shockwave, the biggest shadow has been cast by controversy over where he will go, and his inability to sign with an organization has left him out of a ring or cage since December 31st, 06.

No one knows where he will go from here, his talent, strength and charisma are definitel a large part of the MMA heavyweight top ten, and we can only hope to see them again soon.