Expect the unexpected with Josh Barnett. At the Bellator Hawaii workouts, today, here in Honolulu, the ‘Warmaster’, one of the most fascinating characters from the old school of MMA fighting, showed on the eve of his Bellator debut why ‘enigmatic’ sells in the field of fighting. No ordinary workout from the American on a day when beloved islander and world champion flyweight Ilima-Lei Macfarlane danced on the raised platform with the Pacific on one side, and the media on the other, only to explain afterwards that she feels like she carries “the Islands on my shoulders when I’m on a platform like this” in a second world championship event in her homeland; the Hawaii that loves to dance itself to the rhythm of fighting, like the waves lapping its shores.
“My main goal is to defend my belt,” explained the 29-year-old who defends her crown against Briton Kate Jackson, “but my other really big goal is to represent my home, my culture, and my people to the best of my ability and to share things that the world might not know otherwise.”
Barnett, the Friday headliner to Saturday night’s denouement with the ladies coming out last, carries another kind of culture on his shoulders. Drama. He threw his workout partner off the stage and onto the grass here, indulging in a dangerous pro wrestling frolic which could have gone so wrong, in so many ways.
It involved chairs, huge buckets of ice, and holiday-goers wondering if they were suddenly immersed in a melee as they soaked up the rays on the Hilton Honolulu beach. Barring huge clods being dug out of the lawn and the creation of a runway of ice, as two huge men indulged in pro-wrestling blood sport, there was no actual bodily harm done. Yet Barnett had made his statement: ‘Be prepared for anything, for change, to act in the moment’.
Barnett – through PRIDE, the UFC, Affliction, DREAM and Strikeforce over a 22 year period – has fought a Who’s Who of the greatest to grace the sport. His knowledge is immense. Yet it is over three years since his last professional mixed martial arts fight, and in that time he has fought and won another battle – through arbitration – against the United States Anti-Doping Agency stemming from an out-of-competition drug test..
Eventually, Barnett was vindicated in a claim that one of his nutritional supplements had been contaminated. The ruling absolved him of any intentional wrongdoing. What he did lose, though, was time.
Now, aged 42, and arguably the most renowned catch wrestling exponent in MMA history, he re-unites with Bellator President Scott Coker, for whom he fought years back in Strikeforce.
“I’ve been sitting around stroking the cat and coming up with evil plans,” Barnett told The Telegraph in an exclusive interview.
“I am still tinkering with cars, when time permits. Every super villain should have a bad ass vehicle. I’m always watching all kinds of film.”
It’s always been that way in interviews with Barnett. We start to discuss Quentin Tarantino’s latest filmic tome, ‘Once upon a time in Hollywood’. “Loved it, actually. I describe it as Seinfield movie, as in, it’s a movie with no plot. I thought the acting was compelling and the characters were engaging. I loved the story arc. I loved how everybody was showing their existence in that environment on the screen. Someone I know read into it that the ending was more of redemption for the people in real life, a spell of sorts. A resetting of the reality of things.”
“There was a lot of things wrapped into that final stretch. There was a lot of things under the surface. Whether it was 100 per cent intentional by Tarantino or whether it just came out in his subconscious, I don’t know.”
Without wishing to create spoilers or turn this into a film review, suffice to say it’s a movie worth watching, at the very least. We return to fighting talk, and leave film behind.
“I had intended to take a break to work on some other things. I could say the story of my life since that fight, is fighting against inefficient and negligent bureaucracies,” Barnett told me. “I set up my one wrestling company and guided fighters. I’ve work on my personal life and laid down some investments for the future.”
Sure, but there are a few heavyweights in Bellator now who might be after revenge over Barnett, I suggest. He is still a major name in the sport, if you know your MMA onions, and its layers. “I haven’t been too enthusiastic about rematches. When it comes to a Roy Nelson or a Matt Mitrione or a Frank Mir, if it came up that I was fighting one of them, it would really just be friends fighting. They’re people I respect and like, enjoying just going to war with another. I wouldn’t begrudge them. Plus I like making them money and I like making money for myself.”
“Besides this fight [he meets Ronny Markes in the Friday night headliner], there’s really two people in the organisation that I’ve got a deep interest in. That is Ryan Bader because he’s the champion and second to that would be Fedor [Emelianenko]. He’s incredible. He’s a force of nature as a heavyweight. I have so much love and respect for him and I want to be able to say I was in there with him.”
The Fedor fight, needless to say, is on his radar. “I want to be one of the last guys to fight him. I’d fight him in Russia or Japan. I was more than willing to fight him in Japan, it just wasn’t on the cards this time. It’s really not about location. We’ll bless the ring with our presence and our blood wherever and whenever Scott or Bellator wants us to…”
Barnett faces Markes here, on his return, on the Friday night of the double-header of events, this one for the US troops stationed at nearby Pearl Harbour, and other US military bases. Bellator’s leading fighters have made visits to various of the bases throughout the week, doffing their appreciation of service.
“I personally just assume I’m going to be facing a version of Markes that’s yet to be seen,” explains Barnett on Friday’s fight night. “His best version will show up I’m sure. He specifically said he wanted to fight me because he wanted a person of high merit and legacy. I fully respect that. He wants to challenge himself and that’s as much as you can ask of anyone. Now it’s about me showing up and giving him the version of me he wants.”
It’s going to be an intriguing ride with the ‘Warmaster’ in Bellator, to say the least.