It has been 18 months since Josh Barnett stepped inside a UFC cage. Barnett was notified of a potential doping violation in December of 2016 and has been butting heads with USADA ever since.
Last week, Barnett became the first fighter to successfully appeal a USADA suspension to an independent arbitrator. His punishment was reduced from a 2-year suspension to a public reprimand, freeing him to return to competition. Now, Barnett is hoping his case forces USADA to change how they approach similar cases in the future.
“I’m proud my innocence held up and that USADA has to recognize that publicly,” Barnett told ESPN this week. “But the fact we worked with them from the beginning and they had knowledge this supplement was tainted — we could have been done with this a long time ago.”
Josh Barnett and USADA
Barnett was able to provide a supplement which contained the banned substance (Ostarine) he was flagged for. According to him, USADA was able to independently verify the tainted supplement as far back as April 2017 but was uninterested in working with Barnett.
“It felt like [USADA was saying], ‘OK, he’s proved this was a tainted supplement; how do we go after him another way?’ – Josh Barnett
In Barnett’s opinion, USADA is concerned only with catching and punishing offenders rather than keeping the sport clean.
“The punishments have somehow become an indicator of how well the program is performing, more than anything else.”
He also contends that he personally may have been a target for USADA because of his past test failures.
“Maybe [USADA] felt I was someone who would look good to punish.”
USADA Responds
Barnett’s case sets an important precedent. It’s the first case of an independent arbitrator ruling against a USADA sanction given to a UFC athlete. The ruling makes arbitration a more attractive option for fighters in the future.
Since USADA was able to independently verify the tainted supplement, however, Barnett is not sure why his case even needed to go to arbitration.
“[USADA] was very casual in saying, ‘You can just go to arbitration.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to go to arbitration!’ I wanted to work with them and get this done in a non-confrontational manner.”
In Barnett’s case, he’s able to afford a lawyer but any fighters in USADA’s testing pool wouldn’t be so lucky.
