Josh Barnett

Posted by Fanatics Authors on January 11, 2019

In the world of full contact combat sport, Josh Barnett's fighting skills have made him one of the toughest competitors out there. Also known as "The Warmaster," Josh Barnett is well versed in Muay Thai, catch wrestling, grappling, and has a mastery of many other forms of combat fighting. Josh's youthful looks combined with his over all combat mastery have also hearned him the nickname "The Babyface Assassin."

At the age of 24, Josh Barnett made history by coming the youngest UFC Heavyweight Champion. Barnett has since sealed his mixed martial arts Hall of Fame status, ahd has also won the Metamoris Heavyweight Championship and the Pancrase Openweight Championship.

Not only did The Warmaster prove his his mixed martial arts fighting talent across multiple organizations, he also thrived in a career as a professional wrestler. Josh Barnett mad his Professional wrestling debut with New Japan Pro wrestling in 2003. He has also been associated with other Pro wrestling promotions such as the Inoki Genome Federation and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

If proving himself as an MMA Champion and high level professional wrestler was not enough, Josh has since gone on to be a color commentator since the beginning of 2015. Barnett's legacy, from his rise to fame, to his martial arts and pro wrestling careers, to his color commentary will always be remembered. The following includes everything you need to know about this legendary American fighter.

Instruction

Attacking The Guard By Josh Barnett

With this DVD, Josh tips the balance of power back to the player on top in a grappling match!

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Punishing Rides Catch Wrestling By Josh Barnett

Riding is a key strategy for winning in MMA and grappling. Exhausting your opponent, sapping him of strength and setting up the final submission to win the fight are the result of being able to ride your opponent well.

Former UFC Heavyweight Champion and current King of Pancrase dedicates over two full hours of concentrated instruction to one of the most important and most overlooked aspects of modern fighting: RIDING.

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Josh "Warmaster" / "Baby-Faced Assasian" Barnett

Born November 10th, 1977 in Seattle Washington, Josh Barnett is an American mixed martial artist, professional wrestliner and color commentator. Barnett has had one of the longest active careers in MMA, as he began fighting 21 years ago. Barnett has two half brothers, Gary Norton and Jackson, but has never does not mention them in any public forum as he is not close with his family. He is widely known for becoming the Champion of the Heavyweight division of the UFC. Josh had a troubled childhood and would often end up in very rough fights with kids at school. Because of this, Barnett was subjected to an anger management program in his youth where he learned to deal with his anger by focusing on sports. Barnett would go on to excell at wrestling, football, and eventually kickboxing and judo after attending Ballard High School. While watching UFC 2 one day as a sophmore in college, Barnett became interested in becoming a professional fighter. It was then he decided to leave the University of Montana where he was attending in order to play football as a walk on member of the team.

Soon thereafter, Josh Barnett would go on to train at the Bushidokan dojo founded by Jim Harrison. Barnett was broke and could not pay for the training, so he instead helped with maintenance and labor at the dojo in exchange for free lessons. Eventually Barnett would work towards his debut in Mixed Martial Arts in 1997. In his first match, Barnett won the fight in less than 3 minutes with a rear naked choke submission. He continued to dominate in MMA reaching a 9 - 0 record with seven stops in the first round.

Josh Barnett would go on to make his debut in the UFC against Gan McGee on November 28, 2000. Barnett would go on to win this fight with a TKO. He would later test positive for a banned substance and ultimately was given a warning from the UFC. Josh continued to fight and was given a title shot for the UFC Heavyweight Champion. It was here that Josh Barnett become the youngest ever champion at age 24. Unfortunately, he would later be stripped of his title after testing positive for banned substances a second time.

Barnett would go on to suffer a fractured and a dislocated shoulder in his fight against Croatian Mirko Cro Cop. He would be required to get surgery following six months of intensive rehab. Once he made his return from the injuries sustained in the fight with Cro Cop, Josn Barnett beat Alexander Emelianenko in the second round of the PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix. Barnett would later go on to defeated Randy Couture to win the UFC heavyweight championship in Las Vegas on March, 22, 2002. Again, he was stripped of the championship due to a positive drug test.

The next several years would see Josh Barnett a name for himself in Japan as both a pro wrestler with New Japan Pro Wrestling and competing in Pride as one of the company's all time top heavy weight competitors.Barnett would eventually return to the UFC after an 11 year hiatus with a win over Frank Mir at UFC 164.