[Monsterman]

Originally Posted by NearDark

If Pride doesn't do any testing at all, then everyone is suspect. You can usually tell from appearance who is abusing synthetic testosterone (Jeff Monson, Bob Sapp) and who is using it properly or not at all (Mauricio Rua, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira). I've never seen anyone get that "gnarly look" naturally that you see in people like Monson or the boxer Shannon Briggs, not at heavyweight weights. If Barnett is taking anything, it must be to control his midsection as it doesn't look like he's packing on the muscle mass in the upper body. Barnett has an odd body structure with huge hips and thighs that make his upper body look smaller in comparison.

Then again, Tim Sylvia in the UFC was nailed for steroid use as well, and he said he was using in order to lose weight. Looking at Barnett's weight fluctuations and it seems along the same lines.

Pawel Nastula looked really good in his fight with Barnett last fall and was dominating the fight until he made a small mistake. He has a losing record, but they threw the guy in with ridiculous competition for his first four fights. "Welcome to Pride, now get in with Big Nog and the Reaper." Hopefully we'll see him again.

I used to kinda be a Barnett fan but grew weary of him running his mouth about everyone, even talking shit on Fedor. It got to be too much with his trashing of Antonio Nogueira - I mean he can't show a little respect to an all time great. You don't have to like your opponent, but is it so hard to say "I'm fortunate to be able to fight a legend in the sport who has been around since the early days of Pride, but I'm going to dominate and win and..." Instead he showed a total lack of class. Barnett said Nogueira had all kinds of excuses for his losses, but then Barnett turns around after his rematch loss and says he had taken asprin earlier that day which thinned his blood and that caused his nose to bleed on its own, not by Nog's punches...ok. Mirko takes him apart in the grand prix finale and Barnett says CroCop poked him in the eye. Whatever. I know Nogueria and Fedor both jaw some themselves about opponents, but there is a line where it stops being friendly rival trash talk and becomes disrespect. Barnett has no respect for anyone, and that turns fans away every time (he needs to take a lesson from Tim). All it does it make you want to see the guy lose.

Barnett obviously knows his submissions extremely well and has had a lot of success in his 'whatever works to win' style of fighting. I don't think anyone does leg and feet submissions as good. I still think he is a dangerous opponent for Fedor especially on the ground, although the times Barnett has stepped up (CroCop, Nog, even Pawel) he has struggled.

But yeah I think he's probably still using steroids especially if Pride does not test at all. Whatever he might be taking it's certainly not something that is packing on shoulder or arm muscle or very much muscle mass at all, not compared to, say, Fujita.

Barnett has great interwievs and they seem to be just for hyping the fights. Since he´s friends with fedor, Hunt etc. and is very polite after the fights. And Nog did complain too much after the first fight..