Josh Barnett was supposed to have the biggest fight of his mixed martial arts career this weekend, a bout with Fedor Emelianenko that, had he won, would have made him the heavyweight champion of MMA. But Barnett isn't fighting this weekend, and in a brief phone interview with FanHouse Friday night, Barnett sounded upset and dejected while vowing to keep fighting the failed steroid test that led to his fight being called off. After news broke last week that Barnett had tested positive for an anabolic steroid, his fight with Fedor was canceled -- as was the entire Affliction Trilogy card. Barnett was clinging to hope that a second test of his urine (commonly referred to as the "B sample") would clear him, but on Friday the California State Athletic Commission revealed that the B sample came back positive, too.
I asked Barnett whether he had any reaction to the B sample coming back positive, and he answered, "Nope. Not yet."
Barnett understands that fans are upset they won't be seeing him fight Fedor, but he said he's not at a point where he can say anything to those fans.
"I wish I could," Barnett said. "But when you get involved in things like this, that's not really an option right now. So I have to just sit back and wait. Things will be released as fast as I can."
Barnett said he doesn't know what, specifically, he can do to fight the California State Athletic Commission's finding that he used performance-enhancing drugs. And at this point, there may not be anything he can do to get any American athletic commission to license him or any MMA promoter to do business with him: According to multiple published reports, this represents the third time Barnett has tested positive for steroids. In American sports, three-time steroid users are pariahs.
But Barnett said he and his representatives are not done trying to clear his name.
"I'm not sure," Barnett said when I asked him what else he can do to fight the positive test. "But I have people working on it."
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