You get the impression neither Josh Barnett nor Roy Nelson is knocking on the door of a UFC heavyweight title shot these days.
You also get the distinct impression both guys are pretty cool with that.
Despite the fact both retain respectable rankings in the puddle-shallow 265-pound division—the 37-year-old Barnett is No. 8 while Nelson, who is 39, is ranked No. 11—their very existence feels independent of the heavyweight rat race.
And, yes, that’s absolutely meant as a compliment to this pair of MMA iconoclasts as they enter the twilight of their long, strange careers. It means fans continue to follow and care about them despite the fact neither is about to climb aboard a bullet train to the top.
It also means their main event at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 75 is a pretty weird fight—one that manages to boast few, if any relevant stakes while still being somehow totally perfect.
The Warmaster né Babyfaced Assassin vs. Big Country?
In Japan?
Yes, we will absolutely watch that and probably enjoy every minute—or more likely every fleeting second—until it’s over, regardless of what it means.
Or what it doesn’t.
Barnett comes in off the longest layoff of his career, idle some 637 days since his first-round technical knockout loss to Travis Browne at UFC 168. As is his practice, he kept busy in the meantime, becoming Metamoris heavyweight submission grappling champion and taking up a color commentary gig on American broadcasts of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
He’s always been a man of eclectic interests—muscle cars, heavy metal, Magic the Gathering—and usually gives the impression he could really take or leave this MMA thing. Serially nomadic, he spent the heart of his fighting career banished from the UFC and appearing in far-flung promotions like Pride Fighting Championships, Strikeforce, Affliction, World Victory Road and Dream, among others.
When the UFC bought Strikeforce in 2011, Barnett’s world suddenly got a lot smaller. Perhaps after years of telling himself he didn’t need the promotional giant to have a successful fighting career, he realized the jig was up. For a time, it seemed to re-energize him, and he stormed out of the gate with a first-round knockout victory over Frank Mir at UFC 164.
Between the Strikeforce cage and the Octagon, he fought three times in 2013, his most of any year since 2008. The last one was that rough defeat by Browne, and after taking nearly two years to collect himself, this bout with Nelson shapes up as our best chance to see where Barnett’s head is at, to gauge his level of interest.
Could be he knows that too.
“I don't really have anything personal with Roy particularly,” Barnett told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this week, “but I do have something personal against myself and my last performance. My last fight was not acceptable for me in any way, shape or form, and I have a really bad taste in my mouth over that, and I want to make sure I go above and beyond in this fight."
By contrast, Nelson is at least willing to pay lip service to the title hunt. He recently pointed out to the Las Vegas Sun’s Case Keefer that nobody is ever totally out of the running for No. 1 contender status in the heavyweight division.
“As long as you string up two good wins, you’re right there for the belt,” Nelson said. “Like this fight, I’m ripe for the belt. You’re always in title contention just because you’re a heavyweight. Heavyweights, we switch that role left and right as long as the champions fight.”
While he’s right about the eternally chaotic nature of the 265-pound weight class, Nelson doesn’t tell the whole tale here, either. The truth is, there’s a valid discussion going on right now about the heavyweight title picture and the battle to be a top contender—and that conversation doesn’t really include him or Barnett.
Nelson enters this bout just 1-4 dating back to April 2013, so it’s actually been a minute since he’s been able to “string up two good wins.” It’s probably out of his reach to be “ripe for the belt” before late 2016 at the earliest.
That has everything to do with not only Nelson’s recent record, but also the fact new champion Fabricio Werdum is already slated for an immediate rematch against Cain Velasquez. A crowd of guys including Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Ben Rothwell and Stipe Miocic are jockeying to be next up.
So, if anything, Nelson needs a win here just to hold his spot.
During the lead-up to this bout, he’s criticized the UFC for booking Werdum and Velasquez in a do-over. Then again, criticizing stuff is basically Nelson’s career MO. He’s practically the UFC’s official contrarian, and the attitude has made him memorable, if nothing else.
Despite Barnett’s assurances there was no personal animosity between them, Nelson also took to social media to mock the former UFC champion for his multiple past drug test failures:
So, grudge match?
Nah.
Barnett appeared to take Nelson’s jibes in stride.
"I look at it as a toddler with a butter knife trying to challenge a Viking with a battle axe,” he told Helwani. “You just have to laugh, pat him on his head and move on when it comes to that sort of thing.”
It’s somehow fitting that this fight is happening in Japan, especially just a week removed from Spike TV’s announcement that former Pride boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara is returning to MMA.
There’s just something of an old-school Pride vibe surrounding it, even though it will go down inside the UFC cage and under America’s standard unified rules.
Perhaps it’s the singular nature of the matchup, the fact this fight exists outside of any real storyline or conventional stakes. The winner moves up the heavyweight ranks an inch or two, while the loser likely remains in stasis.
Nobody is fighting for his job.
Nobody has a tremendous amount of ground to gain or lose.
Maybe it’s just that a well-known professional wrestler will fight an overweight brawler with a black-belt-level jiu jitsu game he almost never uses. This tandem will make for some good copy. Fireworks will ensue. Someone will win, someone will lose.
Nothing will change.
When it’s over, both guys will just go on about the business of being themselves.
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