Fighting and Cycling
The UFC scored a huge victory yesterday, and they didn’t even have to do anything. Former UFC fighter Josh Barnett was supposed to be in the main event of the next Affliction card against Fedor Emelianenko on August 1. Barnett was briefly a UFC heavyweight champion, but he was stripped of that title and booted from the UFC when he tested positive for steroids. He moved on to Pride and then to Affliction after burning that UFC bridge, and he established himself as a top heavyweight outside of the biggest organization. In his pre-fight drug test this week he again tested positive. That means he obviously can’t get a license for the fight, and he was booted from the card. Affliction didn’t have the time to replace him, so they took the unusual step of cancelling the entire card. That’s a huge blow for a fledgling organization, and it could even be a fatal one. EliteXC was forced to declare bankruptcy after less of a setback than this one. Whether Affliction survives or not, this only serves to further establish the UFC as perhaps the only legitimate MMA organization out there. At the very least, they are by far the most professional. The best possible outcome of this is that Fedor Emelianenko would finally get frustrated by not fighting in the biggest and best and would join the UFC like he really needs to do. That would open up a world of possibilities – Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar and so on. There is no better place for him to be, and no other way for him to prove that he is what everyone thinks he is – the best heavyweight in the world, and perhaps the best fighter period.
