Josh Barnett's interview. Talks about Aleks Emelianenko and Hidehiko Yoshida

World Victory Road (WVR) has confirmed that Japanese star Hidehiko Yoshida will meet Josh Barnett in the main event of the promotion's March 5 debut card at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 1 in Tokyo, Japan. It was previously expected that the Barcelona Games judo gold medalist would meet star grappler Roger Gracie in the marquee fight for the Sengoku card. Barnett last MMA fight was on NYE 2006, when he lost an unanimous decision to now-UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their rematch. He has been a much sought free agent, who is considered to be one of few people (additionally to Randy Couture), that could cause Fedor Emelianenko some problems.

Because of that, there were a lot of rumors speculating on when Josh will be back fighting and who his opponent will be. The last rumor being the possibility of a rematch against Aleksander Emelianenko. That wasn't even a rumor, because it was posted on Aleksander's web page and it's as much official as it gets. The news being that the negotiations are going on, but that his opponent will probably be Josh Barnett.

But let's look at what Josh Barnett himself has to say about his fight for World Victory Road against Hidehiko Yoshida and this rumor about the Aleksander Emelianenko bout.

Question: Your first fight since 12/06...Yoshida; It seems like a great fight for your return as far as good competition and a chance to gauge yourself. What do you expect from your opponent and yourself in this fight?

Josh Barnett: It's a great fight for the Japanese fans and the organization. I think it will really draw them in and I’m very happy to to have the chance to compete against someone like Yoshida-san. He’s a good guy and a good fighter. I trained with him many times and always found him to be a strong fighter. I thnk he'll want to keep this fight on the ground but I couldn't care less about where we go as long as the crowd loves it.

© joshbarnett.tv Josh Barnett vs Aleksander Emelianenko. May 2006. After one 10 min round Aleksander gassed and Barnett submitted (keylock) him at 1:57 of the second round.

Question: Alot of news sources were saying you would be fighting Aleks again. If you had your choice and a promotion put the deal together, would you be fighting Aleks or Fedor Emelianenko?

Josh Barnett: No one offered me a fight against Aleksander in April and I don’t know how the rumor got started. I know he wants to rematch, which I’m fine with, but nothing’s been proposed by any promoters yet. Anyone who wants to be the best has to fight the best, but my career, and Fedor's too, is not based on us chasing each other down. If it’s meant to be, it will happen. He is a great fighter and anyone would be honored to fight him.

So no one even offered him a fight against Aleksander? I would think that Josh Barnett would be the person to know. I can see only two explanations: either Aleks's (per se M-1) web site is lying or it's Josh Barnett who isn't talking a truth. I could understand the latter (for marketing purposes), but he had no point in saying that nobody even proposed that fight - he could have just said that they were talking, but nothing is certain yet. But if it was M-1 which was lying, then the big question is "Why?"! And quite frankly I don't have a clue...