Josh Barnett reflects on USADA frustrations, says system wasn’t designed to help fighters

Josh Barnett will finally step into the cage again.

The former UFC heavyweight champion will soon resume his MMA career after being out of action for a little more than three three years. Barnett (35-8 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), no longer with the UFC, will debut for Bellator in the main event of Friday’s card in Hawaii. “The Warmaster” will take on Ronny Markes.

A big chunk of Barnett’s inactivity was due to his run-in with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees the UFC’s drug-testing program, back in 2016. Just three months after his big submission win over Andrei Arlovksi at UFC Fight Night 93, Barnett failed an out-of-competition drug test administered by USADA.

Unlike many fighters before him, who had also claimed innocence, Barnett took the case to arbitration and was able to prove with his legal team that the prohibited substance – ostarine –  had come from a tainted supplement.

Barnett received no further suspension and was reinstated to compete right away. But despite winning the case, the whole process took almost a year and a half to complete, having officially closed the book in March 2018.

Looking back, Barnett describes his experience dealing with USADA as frustrating.

“I intended to take a small break as it was only to now have to deal with all of that and then to have to engage with an unyielding, unwilling-to-accept-blame bureaucracy,” Barnett told MMA Junkie. “It’s no fun at all, and I knew from the very start it didn’t matter what I did to prove my innocence, it was going to take a massive effort – and likely conflict – to finally get it resolved.

“A system like USADA was not designed to help the fighters, it was designed to be punitive to show its effectiveness so it can continue to get hired by the UFC and so it can continue to get grants and money from the US tax payers, which it does. So in a sense, some of my money went to pay USADA so they can try and persecute me.”

Being 40 years old at the time and coming off a lengthy layoff, some in Barnett’s position might have called it quits. Instead, Barnett asked for his release from the UFC and then went on to sign with Bellator.

Barnett was not going to let anyone dictate the way he ends his career. He also said he feels great and doesn’t feel much of a physical difference compared to when he was an active fighter few years ago.

“There is no way I was going to let USADA be the thing that dictates my career, the hell with that,” Barnett said. “But also you don’t get to be an athlete at this level for very long and I’ve managed to do so for a lot longer than most ever get to. So for me it’s important that I do as much as I can, while I can, while it’s still a possibility.”

Barnett will still be subjected to commission drug testing under Bellator contract but will no longer have to deal with USADA – that being a program exclusive to the UFC in MMA. Barnett is somewhat indifferent about the change, as he wasn’t fully against the idea of USADA. He just wishes organization worked better with the fighters.

The UFC and USADA recently revised their program to better handle cases like Barnett’s which involved tainted supplements, but it came too late for him.

“Honestly I didn’t mind it,” Barnett explained. “I wouldn’t mind USADA if it was going to have pragmatism and be able to work with the fighters and adjust and create amendments like they did recently.

“But that wasn’t the case and they didn’t seem to make headways or significant changes until there was enough stuff that came across their door-step and or enough high-dollar fights looked to be in jeopardy for them to make a difference. I don’t have anything against the concept of USADA in the idea of creating a system like that. I have no problem with that.

“In fact, I did completely random full-on testing with WADA before USADA was even in place for a fight and they were very easy to deal with. You know, there is some little annoying things here and there in terms of scheduling and what you have to do. But the person I worked with the collector or inspector was a very even keeled, a very considerate individual, and the system went without a hitch, as instituted by the NAC. So the systems don’t necessarily have to be inquisition-type stuff.”

Whether it’s USADA or something else, Barnett is not a fan of big governmental bodies getting their hands involved in professional fighting. He comes from the Pride era, where things were much different.

“Not a fan of bureaucracies in general, they are often unyielding, overextended, too large ,and they’re full of middle men and paper pushers and systems that take forever to get even the smallest thing accomplished,” Barnett said. “So it’s not just specifically USADA, it’s all kinds of bureaucratic elements involved in fighting at this point that in it of itself is quite often a turn off for me – someone who liked fighting when he had head stomps, soccer kicks and the whole nine.”