Josh Barnett on Rizzo + Advice for promoters

[smoogy]

Long-ass interview but here is the meat of it:

You have a big fight coming up in July with Pedro Rizzo. You recently said on HDNet that you want to knock him out, so are you going to stand with him like you did seven years ago, or will you change things up?

It's necessary to stand with everybody, if you ask me. It's long since past that you can be entirely a one-dimensional fighter and make things work. You have to be able to stand with anybody, even if you wanted to take them down, because if they have no respect for anything that you may do on the feet, then you're never going to be very successful with your takedowns and vice versa.

Whether it's on the ground or on the feet, I'm coming and I'm bringing it hard. I always aim for the knockout or the submission, but it certainly would be sweet to turn the tables around and leave him with his eyes rolled up in the back of his head.

When you look back at that fight with Rizzo in '01, what do you see that you did wrong?

You know, I didn't strategize; I didn't think as much as I should've. I started landing lots and lots of punches and I just kept going with it, and instead of thinking about setting things up, I just kept coming after him. He likes to run a lot in the ring; he got me to chase him, too.

Let's say — and I don't really like the idea of this tactic — but let's say toward the end of the second round, right before I got knocked out, I just started firing off the low kicks and front kicks, and just sort of dancing away for a minute. Maybe he engages me, maybe he doesn't, (but) I could have stalled out the entire end of that second round (and) I probably would have been up two rounds to zero. It's as simple as that.

I would never even have thought of that at the time, and honestly, I just should have taken advantage of certain things that he was doing. And sometimes, if he's not going to initiate, I should have used that opportunity to do something else.

I just wasn't smart in some of the things I did in that fight, and against a guy like Pedro Rizzo, who's that skilled, it cost me.

Seven years later, how have you changed as a fighter, and, as far as you can tell from watching him, how has Pedro Rizzo changed?


Pedro Rizzo has started to do more ground work in his fights, but he's been doing this long enough that he's always been able to grapple to a certain extent.

I think he's pretty much the same guy. I don't think much has changed for Pedro and he had quite a bit of success with it early on in his career, so I don't think there was any reason in his mind to change it, other than to just try and be better at what he already was.

For me, I'm still pretty much the same fighter in one aspect and that is, I always aim to be world class at every aspect.

A lot of people talk about being a well-rounded fighter and able to do X and Y, and they don't care — (they say) they'll fight on the feet, they'll fight anywhere. But it's very rare that you'll see a fighter get out there and start to try and execute and go ahead and fight within all levels. It'll become apparent very quickly where they have to be to win the fight, and what they have to do, otherwise they fall apart.

For me, it's not an issue. I truly can fight at any level and any area in the ring. I've just spent so many years working with great coaches like Erik Paulson and Matt Hume and Bill Robinson. My submission game, my top game, has improved. I'm stronger and bigger and faster than I used to be back then, and I've got more fights under my belt.

So if anything, I'm just me, but a hundred times better.

Affliction is a new organization coming up, and World Victory Road is a relatively new organization. Should new organizations even think about competing with the UFC?


No, they shouldn't. They can't operate within a vacuum, because what every promotion does, even to a small extent, is going to affect them, but they can't worry about competing with UFC.

They have to try and make sure that:

a) They can put together a great product, in a fashion that is going to draw people to watch it and is available for people to watch it.

b) All their i's are dotted and all their t's are crossed, and everything is laid out and set up, so that someone like UFC couldn't come along and try and find some way to throw a wrench into it, hijack it, challenge it by running programming against it or just simply going behind the scenes to whoever and making a few handshakes, and (say), "Hey, make sure this thing doesn't go off."

You've worked with many promoters in your career. Why is it so hard for new organizations to get traction?

They don't secure the viewership first and basically they just spend way too much right off the bat.

Of course, you're going to lose money when you start, but some of these guys, I think they come in not with the understanding of how long it's going to take them to recoup that investment, and they don't have a nest egg that's large enough to hang in there, especially at the level they're trying to do it at.

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[hunterkiller]

I hope Barnett does well. The world needs another good heavyweight.

[LookitsLance]

If Barnett gets past Rizzo and Monson and Fedor gets past Tim, the fight between them will really tell who the best HW in the world is right now.

[Lord Faust]

After those amazing fights with Big Nog seeming like they were ages ago, I am glad Josh is finally getting back into the game again. It's been too long since he's been on a show and his fights are always great to watch for those who appreciate technical fights.

I'd love to see the following fights, however unrealistic they may be:

- Josh -vs- Fedor
- Josh -vs- Randy (hah! never going to happen)
- Josh -vs- Tim

Anyway, good read, thanks for posting this. I like Barnette's interviews.

[ILJO]

^Barnett already beat Randy although that was a while ago and both fighters have since greatly improved

Good read though. Fedor vs barnett should have happened years ago but its ok because its just been building up and will be huge once it happens

[SnakeD]

War Josh!

He's the best HW in my OPINION.

I can't wait to finally see Fedor get his ass whooped.

[mmasince91]

I hope Rizzo kicks his fucken ass!!!!! We are going to see the rebirth of Rizzo

[Clint]

The more I read things like this:

You've worked with many promoters in your career. Why is it so hard for new organizations to get traction?

They don't secure the viewership first and basically they just spend way too much right off the bat.

Of course, you're going to lose money when you start, but some of these guys, I think they come in not with the understanding of how long it's going to take them to recoup that investment, and they don't have a nest egg that's large enough to hang in there, especially at the level they're trying to do it at.

The more it seems like it is a decent strategy for the UFC to let Fedor be a free agent and then let his $2M paycheck and list of demands sink all of the new orgs that try and pick him up for an event.