Fall guy

The Josh Barnett pile-on begins. A day after Affliction announced it was getting out of the fight promotion game – the end result of bad decision-making and a brutally tough competitive market dominated by an 800-pound gorilla – the fighters from the just-cancelled Affliction: Trilogy event are lashing out. And unfortunately, Barnett, whose positive drug test was the straw that broke the camel’s back, is being blamed.

“Bottom line is, Josh Barnett should pay everybody,” Ben Rothwell told MMA Weekly. The heavyweight was scheduled to fight Chase Gormley and is now out of a job. “He (expletive) up, bad.”

Yeah, he fucked up bad. He juiced, got caught, got banned from fighting in the main event against Fedor Emelianenko, leaving the promoter without their only real draw on the card. But come on, it’s not his fault Affliction put all their eggs in one Russian basket. Fedor was the only real reason to watch the fights and the promoter, for whatever reason, couldn’t come up with a suitable replacement on short notice. Is that reason enough to cut their not insignificant losses and run? I guess so. Doesn’t make it Barnett’s fault. If it had been an injury instead of steroids that had forced him out of the fight I’m sure Rothwell and Paul Buentello and other Barnett blamers would keep their yaps shut. Just because Barnett did it to himself doesn’t mean he’s responsible for Affliction folding. Yet Barnett has become not just a scapegoat for a failed fight promoter, he’s the most-hated man in MMA, which must make Brock Lesnar deliriously happy.

Besides, if you’re a good fighter you’ll find a new home. The UFC may pick up some of the fighters’ contracts, or none of them, nobody knows for sure. UFC president Dana White wants to bring in Fedor but he’s under contract with M-1 Global, not Affliction, which could make it a bit hairy. White has also expressed strong interest in middleweight Vitor Belfort, who was slated to fight Jorge Santiago and who had volunteered to replace Barnett against Fedor. Both Belfort and Santiago are considered top-10 middleweight fighters, which the UFC could certainly use to throw at champ Anderson Silva.

Belfort and Santiago could also do a lot to strengthen a deep Strikeforce middleweight division that already includes a quasi-retired Cung Le, Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith along with Jake Shields and Nick Diaz (when they fight at a catch-weight).

As for the others, Strikeforce could certainly stand to bolster its roster if it wants to improve its position in the marketplace. Affliction was actually negotiating a partnership deal with Strikeforce this week that fell through resulting in Affliction shuttering its doors. But it would be easy to see who else from the card Strikeforce would be interested in.

In fact, Strikeforce had a serious shake-up this week with its Carano vs. Cyborg card. Strikeforce is already in need of a replacement for Joe Riggs, who pulled out of his August 15 match-up with Nick Diaz due to medical problems. Affliction opponents Jay Hieron or Paul Daley (preferably Hieron) could easily fill that vacancy.

Likewise, Rothwell or Gilbert Yvel could step in for the injured Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, who had to withdraw from his title defense against Fabricio Werdum.

And the second-most-exciting fight on the Affliction: Trilogy card is till one I’d like to see: Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Mousasi had effectively cleaned out the middleweight division (outside of the UFC) and was moving up to 205 pounds while Sobral is a top-10 light heavyweight.

And who doesn’t want to see lightweight Japanese supestar Takanori Gomi? Somebody please adopt him.