Josh Barnett snubs UFC contract offer

Multi-time MMA champion Josh Barnett will not fight in the UFC. At least for now.

According to Barnett’s manager, The Warmaster was unable to reach terms with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and will not make his long-awaited return to the promotion.

“We agreed on guaranteed compensation,” LaBarre said. “In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer. However, there are some outlying issues — one in particular — that as of this point we were unable to agree on.” – MMAFighting.com

Those “outlying issues” could well be Barnett’s professional wrestling aspirations. UFC demands exclusivity from its fighters, which often becomes a heavy roadblock in contract negotiations. Man top fighters, such as Alistair Overeem with K-1 and Fedor Emelianenko with SAMBO, had to make a career defining decision whether they fully commit to the Ultimate Fighting Championship or fight somewhere-elsewhere.

Barnett is 4-1 in the UFC, losing only to Pedro Rizzo (UFC 30) via KO. The Baby-Faced Assassin was stripped off his UFC Heavyweight title after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, which also finalized the first, and most likely the last episode of his career with the UFC.

Josh Barnett is currently 32-6 in MMA.