Atencio Confirms Barnett Off “Trilogy” After Testing Positive for Banned Substance, Event Still Expected To Take Place
Affliction’s Tom Atencio has confirmed to Fanhouse that, as previously reported, Josh Barnett is out of his Affliction: Trilogy headliner against Fedor Emelianenko after a pre-fight drug screening was positive for a banned substance.
“He tested positive for a banned substance,” said Atencio. “The athletic commission will not reinstate his license.”
Atencio declined to reveal what substance Barnett tested positive for and went on to say that, although the main event is no longer intact, “at this point” the event is still expected to take place.
The pay-per-view and HDNet-televised card takes place next Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and also features Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago, and Paul Buentello vs. Gilbert Yvel.
Atencio declined to comment on rumored replacements for Barnett, saying “Just look for updates. I’m working on getting the best replacement possible.”
Vitor Belfort, Bobby Lashley, Brett Rogers, and Ricardo Arona are the four opponents being considered by Affliciton as opponents for Fedor, according to Fanhouse.
[Pictured: Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko]
Tags: Alistair Overeem, Bobby Lashley, Fedor Emelianenko, Gilbert Yvel, Josh Barnett, Paul Buentello, Vitor Belfort
Loading ...
whiskey tango foxtrot…. can we just have Atencio vs. Fedor?
Man they better be scrambling to put on a decent Main event. I doubt Il even consider buying the PPV if they dont. I can only imagine how much money they are throwing at Lashley. Thats if they have any left.
What a coaching opportunity for the UFC! If I was Dana White I would have a conference call saying that this 100% cannot happen in the UFC. This is the biggest fight of his life and he just blew it. This card blows anyway. Fedor vs. Belfort……seriously? Fedor vs. Lashley? The guy has 3 fights under his belt and you are giving him Fedor. This should just motivated Fedor to fight in the UFC because there are no Heavyweights out there to fight Fedor out of the UFC! I would love to see a Cro-Cop rematch, Couture, and Lesnar……
Fedor vs. Lashley? I can’t say that them fighting wouldn’t be interesting. Let’s say Lashley beats Fedor, where does that leave him? Title contention? Maybe Lashley vs. Brett Rogers? I’d like to see that one. Or, Werdum vs. Fedor? Idk, just being random now!
sucks. i was looking forward to barnett vs fedor. I dont think its fair to the parties concerned if they fight.
Thank you. That’s the point I’ve been trying to make, I felt the same about it when Shamrock was hurt before the Kimbo fight. I’m not a fan of last minute(w/n two weeks to a month) changes to fight cards when you’ve spent all your time training for one fighter. Affliction just needs Fedor(same with EliteXC) so much they have to be willing to take the risk.
Gay!! This sucks! So much for watching this ppv live. I just can’t do it anymore, Josh should be ashamed. But you know, its probably pot or something dumb like that. We’d hate to have him fight knowing he smoked pot 6 weeks earlier, he might be able to sustain a broken orbitle socket and submit him with a gogoplata ala Nick diaz/gomi. What a joke. Either way, no matter what it is, this is gay!
This is horrible news.
“But you know, its probably pot or something dumb like that.”
Yeah it’s not like Barnett was caught using steroids before..
Is Barnett ducking Fedor again what is this the 456th time now jeez first he didn’t want to fight his friend then it was money now he fails a drugs test is Josh running scared ?
This is terrible i really wanted to see this fight
This sucks. Though seeing brett rogers fight fedor would still be a good fight
I’d like to see if Brett Rogers can get in there and shock the world, who knows.
Lets say that Lashley does take this fight, does anyone feel he can pull off a “Matt Serra”? If he does, where does that put Fedor and Lashley’s careers?
I personaly feel that Lashley should pass on this, it’s too risky for his career at this point, he should continue to grow at a decent pace, he’s still not experienced enough to go against someone like Fedor, but hey, money talks right.
Belfort vs Fedor would make me curious enough to buy the PPV, i don’t know about any other matchup, but if Lashey gets this fight, i will buy the PPV simply out of curiousnees. Man, Barnett f-up a great opportunity to be the guy to beat Fedor.
Dude barnett totally messed it up! I know there’s all this speculation about who fedor’s going to fight and who they can get last minute. If fedor knows what’s good for him, he shouldn’t fight anyone. At this point, barnett was the only hw outside of the ufc that made sense for fedor. You can throw belfort, lashley and whoever you want at him, but imo that would look ridiculous. Atencio is on the verge of having a very unsuccessfull trilogy if he doesn’t pull a miracle out of his ass. I just can think of a suitable replacement. This card sucks, and this will just prove to be the end of affliction dude.
I agree with PLANCK. This is the a great opportunity for the ufc to swoop in.
Wow, Ricardo Arona! I’m more excited for Arona vs. Fedor than for Barnett vs. Fedor. Awesome news! I say Belfort, Rogers get knocked out first round. I don’t wanna see it. Lashley will get subbed by armbar. I don’t wanna see it. Ricardo over Monson anyday. Werdum became an old man after Vera fight, don’t wanna see it. Ortiz will get liver kicked, don’t wanna see it. Arona, the true 205 champion of Pride, the only man to have beaten Fedor in mma, will get cracked and ground and pounded for 5 rounds unless the ref stops it on cuts. Wow, what a main event! Dana White should have signed Arona right away, what an f’ing sob. He knew Arona would scrub Ortiz. The only fighters that would give Arona fits would be strikers: Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida, and M.Rua. At hw, Arona would sit on Noguiera when Nog was clear number 2. Noguiera himself accused (along with Hizzo) Arona as Fedor’s toughest challenge.
“Arona, the true 205 champion of Pride, the only man to have beaten Fedor in mma” actually that man is Tsuyoshi Koshaka….
Arona don’t forget is 1-3 in his last 4, and while strikers give him fits it’s been Fedor’s hands that have have been giving others fits as well. That last loss of Arona’s to a guy who just got cut from from the UFC probably kept him him from looking too appealing… just saying…
Bring on Brett Rogers, I honestly think this guy has what it takes to make this a fight worth watching. This guy is flying way under everyones radar but he has some legit skills and experiance. Nothing top 10 besides AA(if you concider that top10), but I still give him the nod over lashlee who i wouldn’t even concider.
Bad news for sure .
Maybe it could be like “ROCKY” and a totally unknown guy gets a shot at the prestigious WAMMA world title .
Right now its the only way to save AFFLICTION …… sad isnt it ?
Where’s Rickson now ?
Who even cares anymore. There is only a few people I wanna see Fedor fight and they are all in the UFC. Affliction has nobody to offer him. I wanna Fedor v Mir. Mir’s striking has greatly improved and is only getting better. We all saw Fedor struggle w/ Arvloski’s stand-up. I know yall saw that nice combo of knees hands and elbows Mir put together before Lesnar laid on him playground bully style.
Ya Fedor and Mir would be a fantasic fight. A fight that I wouldnt be surprised if it went either way. Mir would be one of the few guys I would want to see fight him. Along with Couture, Carwin, Brock, and Barnett, when he gets his $hit together. I still think Gonzaga has potential to be a top dog, he’s only 30 and should have some good fights ahead of him.
Couture??
Yes Couture Marvel. I know you detest the guy and think he wears depends when hes not in the octagon and would get KOed by one of Florians jabs. But regardless of what you think hes still one of the best fighters out there. How many times does he have to prove it. like he did better against Lesnar than Mir did. Hell he evn took him down and controlled him against the cage. Gave Gonzaga one of the biggest beatings of his life. Watch he will beat Nog to. Then you will have some excuse for that as well. Untill Randy starts to “act” old in his performances in the cage then it is a insult to a legend of this sport to expect anything less.
And its not that I think he could beat Fedor but it would be a great fight, regardless of what you think.
Wow. I’m shocked to say the least. This is literally the fight I’ve been waiting for for YEARS. You think Barnett would remember this isn’t PRIDE anymore. How did his old PRIDE theme go? “Use ster-ads” or something like that.
Lashley has nothing to lose by taking the fight. Vitor has a possible UFC MW shot to lose. Lashley should take this. But then if he wins everyone will say he didn’t deserve the shot at Fedor. Sigh….
And WTF is Atencio saying about “the athletic commission will not reinstate his license”. No, Barnett tested positive for a banned substance. His fighter did not live up to his end of the deal: stay clean you freak.
It’s fitting that Affliction started with Banned, and will now end with a BANNED substance. This is the end of Affliction. I really thought they had potential to be an American PRIDE. Guess they forgot that steroids are only tolerated in Japan.
I never thought I’d say this….but…… F’ WAMMA.
i 2nd that my friends F-WAMMA
dang it i wanted fedor to lose to barnett
Wow, Fedor would not lose to a younger opponent like Barnett simply because he remembers how Crocop treated his brother and Barnett to a bad night. He takes inspiration from Crocop on how to handle younnger opponents. That’s why the fans saw a 20 minute war between Crocop and Fedor – because of respect! No respect will be given this time – guaranteed. Come to think of it – Gilbert Yvel not Arona would make for the most entertaining fight. Wow, i’m scared for Fedor now. Fedor better not get kicked by Yvel. On the other hand, remember Anderson Silva – James Irwin? Same fate looming for Yvel. Yvel better man up and step up. Great fight, anywya. On the other hand, why do people care who Fedor fights? It doesn’t really matter: remmber what Kevin Randleman has said? Something along the lines of: it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, or yellow, big or small, Fedor simply doesn’t care.
Wow, imagine if they actually brought in someone like Vitor, and by some horrible anomally and act of God while several planets in the solar system are perfectly aligned causing a solar eclipse and 4 extinct volcanoes erupt on a tuesday, actually beats Fedor? that would be “elite xc esque”. could that mean that sinse there is absolutely no credible competition for Fedor outside the UFC that perhaps there is a bigger possibility we see him in the octagon soon?
If Fedor lost to Vitor, Vitor would be signed by the UFC and Fedor would be laughed out of the US.
You’re probably right about that.
I definitely dont see lashley taking this fight. a. because he hasnt prepared to fight fedor. b. he wants to build up his career with a few more wins before he starts to fight some big names
This has to be terrible news for Affliction. I read in another topic they needed 300,000 PPV buys to keep going. If Fedor doesn’t fight, and Affliction goes belly-up, will the UFC buy up the assets (including Fedor’s contract) at a bargain-basement price?
Fedor’s contract w/ Affliction is technically over at the end as of Aug 2nd. M-1 Global is who he technically is signed to even though they don’t put on fights much.
You can’t buy a personal services contract and have it still be enforceable ( at least in the US ). They would, at best, be buying the rights to negotiate first.
true you can only technically “purchase” a contract if you pay a buy out fee with a specified contract. Even then you still have to negotiate whether or not to keep the old contract or negotiate a new one. So in essence you can purchase it if it’s agreed to by all parties but like you said it’s not actually purchasing the contract. Same thing is going on with that Rubio kid and the NBA.
Still though point is moot if he fights next Saturday since it was only a 3 fight deal with Affliction.
I wonder if overeem would like to forget the whole bad hand situation if they would consider him as a replacement
They would have to throw a boat load of money at him. It would be stupid to pull out of a fight with Werdum due to a hand injury only to fight Fedor two weeks earlier than the prospective Werdum fight.
not to mention a severe violation of his contract…
I agree. I would like to see Affliction GONE. Fedor will have waaaay better matchups in the UFC. Its where he belongs…if he would care to prove he is the best in the world.
Well, for those people who would like to see Affliction go the way of the dinosaur, you might get your wish.
This Barnett-Fedor fight being scrapped reminds me of when EliteXC had to scrap Shamrock-Kimbo, and we all saw how they made out in the fallout and aftermath…
I can’t believe it!Josh is the last person i would of thought to do this.I was pretty exited for this fight.And as far as the comparison to shamrock/kimbo,IMO this is even worse especially do to the caliber of fighters were talking about.And if i had to pick a replacement i would choose rodgers.