Josh Barnett is one of the most famous and well loved sports personalities in Japan. He is connected to this culture on so many levels. He has been coming to Japan for many years and has even lived here for a while. His time in Pro-Wrestling and his fights in MMA are a top draw to all Japanese fans as well as fans around the world. He has proven his superior fighting skills in the ring, cage, and of course on the mats for years. 
Josh Barnett is also a business man that has come up with and or been a part of some very interesting and long lasting promotions worldwide. Here in Japan he took part in Pancrase, Quintet, and Pride. If you hit his Wikipedia page his associations with the top wrestling and fighting organizations reads like a who’s who of combat sports! Now he has a great stable of his own fighters coming to Japan and impressing the fans.
This weekend Josh Barnett’s BloodSport 2 is taking place in Atlantic City and is featuring some exciting Pro-Wrestling / Combat sports match ups that are sure to remind the fans of the old days. The last time they did BloodSport one you had famous pioneers of the sport on the card like Minoru Suzuki, Hedeki Suzuki, and Masashi Takeda. This made for a fantastic event that featured other famous grapplers and fighters.
BloodSport 2 is coming up this weekend and is going to be some very solid combat sports entertainment. If you want to watch BloodSport 2 you can catch it ob Fite.tv (https://www.fite.tv/)
Josh Barnett (JB): Hey
Me: Hey Josh. How’s it going? Can you see me? You Remember me, right?
JB: Yeah. Of course.
Me: OK How’s it going , buddy.
JB: Good.
Me: Thank you for talking to us and taking your time. I would like to hear about what’s going on in your life with Bloodsport 2. Take it away.
JB: Well, it’s really like something you can not find anywhere else. It’s like more stripped down and old school. I think it has a really good punch. Pun intended.
Me: That’s really good. What are your plans for marketing this internationally? What are you thinking about doing for example in Japan?
JB: The main thing is that we are keeping a connection with Japan. We are bringing over great fighters like Masashi Takada, Hideki Suzuki, and Minoru Suzuki. This time we have Ikuhisa Minowa and Sumie Sakai. There is so much great
talent in Japan we want to keep that connection established. This is a product that I have dreamed about over the years. It’s possible that we could even do a tour in Japan and bring Bloodsport to Tokyo.
Me: That would be great! Let me ask you a what if question. What if you could have any of the UWF wrestlers from the past join Bloodsport, who would you pick?
JB: I don’t know, ummm.. Akira Maeda, Gary Albright, Vader there are so many. But the budget is the issue.
Me: Haha, budget is always the issue. I would like to ask you about some of your fighters that frequent Japan like Victor Henry and Alyssa Garcia.
JB; For Alyssa, she is pregnant at the moment so there is really no fighting for her now. So we are looking a another little version of her in the future. As for Victor, he won the Deep Championship belt, and then we wanted to move up to a bigger organization
and Rizin made that possible. They came to us with a great deal and a chance to fight a very high caliber opponent. Now we want to work our way all the way to the title so we are doing all we can. Now Horiguchi is the top 155Lbs champion in Bellator so if Victor could get in the
ring against someone like Horiguchi that would be the best. That would be as great as it could get but we still have a lot to do and we are looking forward to fighting again soon. Now obviously not the October card.
Me: Any rumors or plans for that big End of The Year Rizin card?
JB: For me or for Victor?
Me: Oh!? Well either one of you. Did you just give us a little hint of what to expect?
JB: I was aiming for another fight in that time frame and I am in Bellator and this exists.
Me: Yes, you’d have to be on that card. Any fighters or opponents on your wish list?
JB: Well I’d like to fight Ryan Bader. He is their champion of course. But there is nothing confirmed yet.
Me: Josh, thanks for your time today. Say hello to all your fighters from MMA-Japan, and we are looking forward to seeing you all in the ring or cage again soon.
JB: Of course. I like to bring my fighters through Japan. I want my fights to come through Japan because I started fighting there and they can be part of that process and history. That opportunity came to me through Matt Hume and Eric Paulson connecting to Karl Gotch. This is a lineage that I intend to continue and bolster. This is connected to the New Japan Pro Wrestling side and Japanese Shoot Wrestling like Pancrase and UWFI and so on. That’s important to me that these athlete are becoming part of that connection.
