Josh Barnett Signs With DREAM
Former UFC, Pride and Affliction fighter, Josh Barnett, has found a new home in Japan as the heavyweight stand-out has signed with Dream and will likely make his promotional debut at their March 22 show later this month.
The signing was confirmed by sources close to the situation to MMAWeekly.com late Monday evening, and the promotion is expected to announce Barnett’s addition in the coming days.
While a move to unregulated Japan is certainly not doing anything to squash his reputation as a steroid user, at least Barnett will be active and fighting again. There are rumors that his first fight back will be Neil Grove who, according to Fight Matrix, is the #50 heavyweight in the world. That’s quite a fall from his shot to unseat the #1 heavyweight in the world when his fight for Affliction: Trilogy was booked against Fedor Emelianenko.
DREAM still remains the most likely venue for seeing an eventual Fedor vs. Barnett fight and, as I mentioned yesterday, M-1 Global is saying that they would much rather fight Barnett than Overeem so look for that to be a push they make in the coming months.
