Overview
Joshua Lawrence Barnett (born November 10, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist, submission wrestler, professional wrestler and color commentator currently signed to Bellator MMA. Barnett previously competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was the youngest-ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. In 2003, Barnett was the final Openweight King Of Pancrase, a finalist in both the 2006 PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix and the 2012 Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship Grand Prix. He has also competed in Affliction, World Victory Road, DREAM and Impact FC. In submission grappling, Barnett was a World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Champion in 2009, the inaugural Metamoris Heavyweight Champion in 2014, and a Catch Wrestling World Champion in 2018.
As a professional wrestler, Barnett made his in-ring debut in 2003 in the main event of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, in a bout against IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata. Since then he has also wrestled for Inoki Genome Federation and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. In January 2015, Barnett began working as a color commentator for NJPW's weekly program on America's AXS TV.
Early life
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Barnett had a troubled childhood and often got into fights. He was put into anger management programs at a young age and learned to cope with his anger by participating in athletics. Barnett attended Ballard High School, where he excelled at wrestling, football, and also trained in judo, karate and Muay Thai. After seeing UFC 2 as a sophomore, he decided that he wanted to be a mixed martial artist. Barnett had originally attended the University of Montana to play football for the school as a walk-on, but decided to pursue fighting instead. At the recommendation of an instructor at Montana, Barnett went to train at the Bushidokan dojo of Jim Harrison. Although he did not have the money for classes, he received training in exchange for helping with maintenance and labor at the dojo.
Mixed martial arts career
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).