Josh Barnett can fight once again, but he had to spend a significant amount of money in the process.
Barnett was on a provisional suspension after being flagged for a violation of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) policy. Barnett went to arbitration to fight the suspension. Barnett was able to prove he did not intentionally take banned supplements and is now free to fight inside the Octagon again.
Barnett has not competed since Sept. 2016. He earned a submission win over Andrei Arlovski. “The Warmaster” turns 40 in November and has lost out on almost two years of his fighting career.
While Barnett is happy to be able to compete again, he told MMAFighting.com that the process didn’t come cheap:
“The concept of USADA is not bad. And the idea of creating something that has protocol and process also, inherently these are not bad things. But if that’s the case, it has to be something that the people that are under its auspices need to do reasonably and effectively. Luckily, I had a very good connection with a prominent lawyer that could help me out. I had people that could help me through this process. But it cost me money, it cost me money to have supplements tested to show that there was a problem. It cost me money to go all the way to arbitration.”
Who would you match Josh Barnett against in his return?
