Josh Barnett has been consistently fighting and consistently winning. He is somewhat of a phenom, accomplishing so much at the tender age of 21 years old. A large, but unassuming young man, who is just as comfortable exchanging strikes with his opponents as he is on the ground setting up his submissions. He's the type of guy that makes you think twice about picking on guys that still have a little bit of baby fat on them. Josh has a tremendous future in front of him, especially with guys like Matt Hume and the fighters of AMC Pancration behind him. Take note of this young fighter and keep your eye on him, he is on the way up. I spoke with Josh on the phone after returning home on September 15, 1999.

FCF: First of all, congratulations on your win at Super Brawl. Were you happy with your performance?
Josh Barnett: Well, I always feel that there are things that I could have done better. I felt my second match was probably my best, looking-wise. Yeah, overall it was okay. I was happy that I won, that's all I really cared about. But I know that I can do better.

FCF: Tell us what your thoughts were on each fight?
JB: Every fight I go in, I try to go in with a positive attitude, believing that anything that I'm going to do is going to work. To just try everything really hard. I work hard for every opportunity that I get. I try not to waste them. In my first fight, I didn't bring enough fire to it. He caught one of my kicks. I felt on the feet, I could hang with him all day, but he caught one of my kicks and we fell down. And he came into my guard and started throwing these big old punches. I just kind of sat there. I was kind of frozen. He hit me a couple times and everything clicked. [I said to myself] "what are you doing sitting here, you better do something." From then on out everything was fine, but I couldn't believe I just sat there. Something just didn't register right away. I didn't prepare myself as well as I should of for that fight, but everything else was just fine after that…except for having a broken nose. [laughs]

FCF: Did you break it in that first fight?
JB: Yeah, like the second punch. I already had a crack across it. You know once you break it, it can be re-broken. He cracked it and I grabbed it and shoved it back in place. It was pretty straight anyway. Forget about it, just deal with it later. I had more important things to deal with.

FCF: And your second fight with [John] Marsh?
JB: I just came out with the attitude that I'm going to go off. I wanted to do really well and I knew he was going to be tough. He beat Travis Fulton, who is a very accomplished fighter. And everybody's got to be tough or they wouldn't be in the tournament. I felt that I had to come in there and take care of business. And I felt that I did pretty good.

FCF: And the finals with Hoffman?
JB: [laughs] Well, I almost broke my ankle jumping into the ring, which is kind of a goof-ball thing. I do it all the time as a ring entrance. I don't know how I managed to do it, but I caught my foot sideways and sprained it. [laughs] I was limping around, trying to talk to Tank Abbott, and Matt [Hume] was trying to cold spray my ankle. You know, this just goes to show that's one other thing I'm going to have to deal with. I just figured that I better forget about it and get in there and fight. So I nailed him with a combo and I really wanted to lay the knees into him. I could hear that they were affecting him. [Hoffman would groan on every knee that connected] And I thought, anytime now he's going to fall and he didn't. He just took them and took them and took them. And I kneed him in the gut maybe 30 times that whole fight, or more. And he never did fall. He showed me that he was a really tough dude and it was going to take a lot more than that to put him away.

FCF: Did your ankle affect you at all?
JB: Well I couldn't really kick very well. I know that. I tried to kick him once and I kind of pulled it because it hurt. I don't know. I'd probably say it didn't…afterwards it hurt. [laughs]

FCF: Were you surprised at how much punishment Bobby Hoffman could take? You were really laying it into him.
JB: Yeah. I hit him with a couple of square shots to his gut. At one point I hit him and I think he put his hands on his knees, or almost went down, but he wouldn't. That guy's got a lot of heart. A lot of guys, I leg kick them once and they're done. But this guy, he was really tough. And he definitely showed that he wanted the title, and the money, or whatever it may be, the prestige of winning the tournament just as bad as I did. People like that are always going to be a tough fight.

FCF: Did you know that he went into the finals with a severely sprained elbow?
JB: Yeah, but I didn't notice it when he was punching me. [laughs] I seen that on the Internet and stuff and I talked to Heath and he said that he key locked it and hurt it. He through a lot of strikes in there that weren't knock out punches. He was just punching me in the nose. Just little, short ones right in the snoz. I tell you man, he hit me like three times in the nose, and my eyes rolled back and I was like, "I'm really getting tired of this." [laughs] It never made me want to quit, but it was like, "ah, man." It sucks, getting punched in the nose, especially when it's already broken.

FCF: You seemed to have no problem getting to the finals. Is that what you expected?
JB: Well, not to be arrogant, but yeah, in my mindset that's what I expected. But you never know what's going to go on. I just try to keep a very positive focus on things. Because if I go in there thinking he's going to be tough and I better do this. Or that guy, I had better watch myself. I feel that I am not going to give my best performance. I feel like I have to go in there thinking, that no matter what they do, it won't work, they can't beat me. That I'm unbeatable, just in my mind, you know? I may lose, I wrestled before and kept the same mindset for that and football and all that kind of thing. You can't win ALL the time. Eventually something will happen and you will lose. A lot of times it's usually something you do to yourself or sometimes you just plain get beat. But I feel that by keeping a positive mindset, a lot of times, it will help you out in the long run. A lot of guys get in there and you whack him a few times and he feels like "oh my god, this guy's too tough." And he doesn't want to fight anymore. But if you really juice yourself up [not the steroid kind, but the O. J. Simpson kind], it doesn't matter, bang, bang, bang, he punches you and breaks your nose and all that kind of stuff, [and you say] "well, that ain't nothing. Wait till I get him." That stuff really helps when I fight.

FCF: Bobby Hoffman expressed interest in having a rematch with you in a Superfight. Would you be interested?
JB: Sure, that would be great. I'm looking forward to fight pretty much anybody. He was a real class act. We hung out some with Heath Herring and we all kind of got along really well. Besides fighting, it would be nice to get a chance to see him again.

FCF: What did you think of the quality of fighters at Super Brawl?
JB: At first it didn't really necessarily strike me very much. I mean it's a tournament, yes. A lot of people think that if your name's not Mark Kerr, it's not the best that there is. But later it struck me that those guy have a lot of credentials in one thing or another. And that's probably THE most stacked tournament that Super Brawl has ever put on, as far as I can think of. A lot of the earlier heavyweight tournaments were four man. Not to knock anybody, but they didn't seem to be the caliber of fighters of these guys at this tournament. There would be one or two top notch guys, and some guys were kind of green. Where a lot of these people in here had a lot of fights under their belts, or had won extensive grappling championships. They all had credentials. I didn't even know who John Marsh was until I went in there, but he's a champion in his own right. Bobby Hoffman is a champion and that says a lot. I personally can't wait for the tape. I love watching fights, just as much as being in them. I kind of get to know a lot of people in the fight game. I like to meet people and stuff like that, so I'm always trying to watch and see what other people are doing so nobody really gets hurt.

FCF: You seemed to have a very complete style. You submitted your first two opponents with arm bars, using your striking to set it up. And in the finals, you basically, used strikes on route to a unanimous decision. Can you tell us about your background?
JB: I started wrestling as a sophomore in high school at an inner city program. I just happen to do pretty well there. I went to the states [championships] my first year as a sophomore. So I stuck with it and I started doing freestyle and Greco on the side. And then I went on from there I placed seventh and second as a junior and a senior. Then I had two Greco state championships, two freestyle runner ups, and I've been to the nationals twice. I had really good coaches. It really stuck with me. I also had done Judo for about two years or so, to help me out with football and wrestling. An old football coach of mine, Fred Sato, who's a really good judo player, got me started into doing that, basically, getting into martial arts all together. In school, we had a security guard who was from Vietnam or one of the south east Asian countries and he used to do kickboxing. So, after school, I used to go practice with him. He used to bring Thai pads and stuff like that. From there, I went to another small place in a small church basement. I used to work out with some people there and doing Thai boxing. I would bounce around, from place to place, a lot of times, just to get some training because I didn't have any formal gyms to work out at, until I got to Montana. I worked out at the Sakura Warriors, with Jim Harrison, who was a well-known karate man in the late 70s. He's in the black belt hall of fame and all that. He was really good in Judo and he did kickboxing, and he let me train there. I would teach him anything that I had picked up in my training and in turn, I was able to train with all these guys and learn how to box. I did amateur boxing in Montana, kickboxing, and things like that. I would grapple and do challenge matches. I got a lucky break and met Matt [Hume]. I was on my winter vacation and I know a guy who does web sites. He used to coach at Everett high school and I used to train with him a lot. Through him, Chris Charnos didn't have an opponent and he called me on 11 days notice and asked if I would fight him and I said sure. I didn't know Charnos had fought in all these Super Brawl fights and stuff like that. I just fought that fight and I ended up choking him out in two minutes. That was really freaky, I was only 19 years old and he was like 36 years old or something. I don't even know how old he was. I just got in there, took him down and went to put my hooks in, but missed one. I had the choke and slid underneath him and he ended up getting the top on me and working some stuff. He tried for an ankle and it didn't work. And we ended up basing out, facing each other, head to head. And I just caught him in a front headlock and turned it into a front choke and ran with it and held it until the ref made me let go. And Matt said that he would like me to try and come back. And from there I moved back home and decided to train with them. And I have been with AMC [Pancration] ever since. They really worked with me on my style as far as my standup, with Haru and Matt teaching me all the finer points of Thai boxing, stand up boxing and stuff like that. Matt really helped me on my knees. I personally feel that there is pretty much nobody that's as good at knees as Matt is. So, I've gotten a lot of really expert training there. He makes me fight off my back all the time, so when I fight from the top, it's real unusual. So for me to beat the first guy from my guard was almost like practices everyday because I have a good base, being a wrestler, and he makes me practice off my back all the time.

FCF: What made you want to get into this sport?
JB: UFC, fight number two or something like that. I had been in a lot of scraps when I was younger. My dad taught me how to fight when I was a kid and I always loved contact sports. When I started wrestling that was really great and when I found freestyle, I thought that was even better because there were less rules. I loved to try to launch guys and stuff like that. I thought that was fun, more competitive. Then I saw the UFC and I thought, I can do that, if I had the training. It was kind of a goal of mine to try to eventually work into that. I love it.

FCF: How do you train for a fight? Please give us a lot of details.
JB: I work Thai pads a lot. I do 5 minute rounds and work the Thai pads over and over again. I like to run stairs a lot, to try and get my wind up and get strong legs. I do constant grappling, where we will get the whole class to rotate on one person, to make sure you get him real worn out in different positions. They'll mount him and he will have to get out. Or we will have a specific thing we're doing. Matt and me will go one on one and we'll work on certain things or we'll just go live. We do a lot of live sparring at the gym and that helps a lot too. To get accustom to the gloves and the punching and everything like that. We do a lot of calisthenics and drills and things like that, you make sure your in good shape. I'd hate to lose a fight because I'm not in shape. A lot of people want to use that as an excuse, but that's not an excuse because it's your fault.

FCF: In that first fight, when you came out, a lot of people underestimated you because of your appearance.
JB: They think because you got a little baby fat on you...

FCF: Realistically, you really kind of have baby fat on you, only being 21 years old.
JB: I know. [laughs] I don't even know what it is bro. I can't help it. I know a lot of people that have guts, but they're different. It's like man-fat and baby-fat, and I got baby-fat and I can't seem to do anything with it. I used to power lift and stuff like that. I would get heavier and a little bigger, but I would never get buff and cut. I would just get stronger. It would infuriate me. You know I was never one trying to get a look or anything, but a bicep here, more cut there, I wouldn't complain. [laughs]

FCF: I think I'm in the same boat, except that I don't train hard. You definitely have a promising career in this sport, where do you want to go in NHB?
JB: I want to be a champion.

FCF: Where specifically, in UFC, Pride, Shooto?
JB: I would like to be a Shooto champion. I think that would be great because I love watching their events and I think they run a quality event. But I just want to be a world champ. It doesn't matter where, you've got to start somewhere. So I'm looking for a belt, whoever's got one.

FCF: Are you looking to make this a career? Or are you going to fight for a while and then do something else?
JB: No, I'm going to ride this out. That's always what I intended to, at least.

FCF: How long do you plan on fighting?
JB: At least ten years from now.

FCF: Is there anyone specifically you would like to fight?
JB: No, not really. I don't have any grudges or anyone specifically I want to fight. The way I figure it is, everyone is going to be a test. Usually people get out there and say "I'm going to fight so and so" or "I think it would be good to fight such and such." It doesn't really matter, do they have the belt or not, you know? I just want to fight whoever's the champion, but that's not always possible, so I'll fight someone else, as long as they're in my path for my goals. A lot of times, if you truly feel that you doubt yourself, I suppose that you might want to try and single other people out because you don't want to deal with the others. But I just have a good feeling about my abilities, so I'm not looking to avoid or single out anyone to fight. It doesn't matter to me.

FCF: Do you have any up coming fights?
JB: Supposedly, I'm supposed to be fighting on a card in November in Louisiana that John Lewis and Maurice Smith are putting on. It's at www.noholdsbarred.com. But it's been postponed a few times, so I'm not completely sure on it.

FCF: Anything else you would like to add?
JB: I'd just like to thank my trainers, Matt, Haru, everybody at the gym at AMC that's behind me. I'd like to thank the Hawaiian fans for all their crowd support and everything like that. I'd like to thank T. Jay for bringing me down there. I'd also like to thank everyone in the tournament for being there and fighting their hearts out.

FCF: Thanks for the interview and congratulations again.
JB: No problem.