The UFC announced on Tuesday that Josh ‘The Warmaster’ Barnett has been flagged for the fourth time in his mixed martial arts career as the former UFC Heavyweight Champion failed and out-of-competition drug test that was collected by USADA officials on December 9.
Barnett (35-8) is no stranger to PED violations, as he failed three separate times prior to his latest potential offense. The first two failures of his career came at UFC 34 and UFC 36, where Barnett defeated Bobby Hoffman and Randy Couture respectively. Even though ‘The Warmaster’ had won both bouts, capturing the UFC Heavyweight Title from Couture in the process, he was later stripped of the Heavyweight crown after testing positive for banned substances twice in a four-month period (November 2001 through March 2002).
Josh Barnett’s third anti-doping violation happened in 2009 just 10 days before a scheduled bout with Fedor Emelianenko, who at the time was widely regarded as the best heavyweight mixed martial artists on the planet. The California State Athletic Commission pulled Barnett from the Afflictions’s third PPV event, Affliction: Trilogy, leading the organization into a nose-dive it would never recover from. Affliction (the promotion) went out of business before they would get the chance to host another mixed martial arts event — not even Donald Trump’s status as major shareholder could save the company. Barnett tested positive for anabolic steroids.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency records indicate Barnett had been tested 13 times this year prior to his potential failure.
Barnett is currently 39 years old and a two-year USADA ban would likely spell the end of his mixed martial arts career inside the United States.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s full statement on Josh Barnett can be seen below.
(UFC.com)
The UFC organization was formally notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Josh Barnett of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection on December 9, 2016.
USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case. It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full fair legal review process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed.
Consistent with all previous potential anti-doping violations, additional information or UFC statements will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.