Josh Barnett Ditches Steroid Appeal Hearing to Wrestle Bob Sapp

[dirk5]

Josh Barnett's appeal of his denial of licensure in the state of California was postponed for a fourth time yesterday, after Barnett failed to show up to the hearing. The Babyface Assassin had a good excuse, though — he was busy beating down Bob Sapp at an Inoki Genome Federation pro-wrestling event in Tokyo. Though Barnett's attorney appeared at the hearing, it wasn't good enough for the California State Athletic Commission, which rescheduled his case until April 20th. Said Barnett's attorney, Michael J. DiMaggio:


“We’ve been diligently preparing to present Mr. Barnett’s case and his defense, and he was unable to be here today and we are extremely shocked and disappointed that the commission ruled that they would not go forward with the hearing without Mr. Barnett being present. It’s particularly surprising in light of the fact that we’re not aware of any rule or regulation that insists that he be here...This is obviously the commission’s rules, which are very vague and unknown to us...Presenting issues and raising issues relating to the test results, the chain of custody, the protocol, those type of issues are issues that can be addressed without Mr. Barnett being present. His presence and his ability to be cross-examined is irrelevant to those issues.”

But according to new CSAC Executive Director George Dodd, Barnett was informed by letter that he'd have to appear in person: “The letter is very clear that you must appear before the commission. It doesn’t say anything else besides appear. You can bring counsel, but it says the word ‘appear’ in there.”

Josh Barnett hasn't competed in MMA since testing positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone last July, which led to a cancellation of his scheduled Affliction: Trilogy match against Fedor Emelianenko, and the eventual scrapping of Affliction's MMA promotion. Barnett vowed to appeal the test results, but his hearings have been pushed back due to additional time needed to gather information from the testing facility and inclement weather. Regarding the 4/20 date of the next hearing, DiMaggio wrung his hands about the futility of it all: “That will be nine months into the ineligibility of Mr. Barnett, which begins to beg the question…at what point does it become worth it to pursue this versus just waiting out the ineligibility period and preparing to move on?”




Die zien we nooit meer te-rug!

[Mule-Kick]

Pfff.. heb hem altijd het voordeel van de twijfel gegeven. Maar altijd liggen huilen dat de beschuldingen vals zijn en dan niet komen opdagen is gewoon dom. Ik ben klaar met em

[Ivo C.]

Why not just fight in Japan?
At least something...

[Fyodor]

Mijn god, alleen die foto al......

Rare gast, blijft jammer want hij is zeker een goede vechter. Hieruit kun je dus opmaken dat hij voorlopig niet meer terugkeert in het MMA....?

[Sendur]

Care, heb echt dikke schijt aan Barnett.

Mma is beter af zonder dit soort types.

[TOON]

barnett sucks! heeft voor een van m'n grootste MMA-teleurstellingen EVER gezorgd!!!

[Kemal]

hahaha

[Lionheart]

Jammer,

Want ik vond het echt een topper.

[kentaro]

Hij kan toch gewoon in Japan mma blijven doen?!

[Remco]

Ik blijf hem steunen. Gewoon omdat ik het een creatieve en bikkelharde vechter vind en hij op mij overkomt als een toffe gast. Lullig dat hij Affliction om zeep hielp, maar dat hij dat in zijn eentje kon bewerkstelligen zegt ook genoeg over die organisatie. Gepakt worden op doping is stom, maar als ik het goed heb zijn de 'schonen' met een vergrootglas nog niet te vinden.