Affliction: Josh Barnett vs. Pedro Rizzo

The semifinal match at Affliction: Banned will pit Josh Barnett against Pedro Rizzo in a battle of well traveled heavyweights. Rizzo defeated Barnett at UFC 30: Battle on the Boardwalk way back in February of 2001 in what was to be the only KO loss to date for ‘The Babyface Assassin’.  It also made the Brazilian striker one of only three men to defeat Barnett during his stellar career in the UFC, PRIDE, Pancrase and World Victory Road placing him in some impressive company along with Mirko Cro Cop and reigning UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. 

Ironically, the careers of the two fighters have taken a divergent course since Rizzo’s 2^nd round KO victory seven and a half years ago. Barnett would go on to become an International superstar twice over, first in Japanese professional wrestling and later mixed martial arts. He’d become the youngest UFC champion in history, and would win a King of Pancrase title making him one of only four men to ever hold titles in both organizations along with Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten. After being essentially blackballed from the UFC due to a Dana White grudge, he went to Japan and became the top foreign (gaijin) competitor for Antonio Inoki’s New Japan Pro Wrestling and would continue to be a big box office attraction in worked matches to this day with Inoki’s current group, the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF). His career in PRIDE was very successful, making him even more of a star in Japan and earning him a spot among the top heavyweight MMA fighters in the world.

According to the saying ‘to the victor goes the spoils’, but that definitely wasn’t the case for Pedro Rizzo. Following his KO victory over Barnett, he lost his next two fights to Randy Couture by unanimous decision and then by TKO. While there’s certainly no shame in a loss, or for that matter two losses, to a living legend like Couture it seems as if Rizzo was never the same fighter after that. All told, his post Barnett record is a substandard 5-6 with only one win against a championship level opponent (Andrei Arlovski). He did beat tough Jeff Monson by TKO in his last fight, but that said more about an ill fated tactical decision by the 5’9"“Snowman" to stand and trade punches with the heavy handed, 6’1 Rizzo than it did anything else.

More significant in Rizzo’s fights since his win over Barnett are the losses aside from the two to Couture. He’s been defeated by several mid-level, one diminisonal opponents including Gan McGee, and Vladimir Matyushenko. A brief stint in PRIDE was an unmitigated disaster, as he lasted less than two and a half minutes in two one sided TKO losses to Roman Zentsov and Sergei Kharitonov. Furthermore, his recent career has been largely characterized by inactivity: since the win over Barnett he’s fought 11 times in 7 years. 

To really understand the divergent courses of the two fighters’ careers, however, its necessary to go beyond the wins and losses and undertake a more abstract analysis of their progress. Barnett learned from the Rizzo loss and since then has quite simply become an entirely different fighter. His improved conditioning is the most obvious component of this, with the obvious ‘baby fat’ displayed during his UFC run replaced by a lean and muscular physique. He’s also refined his world class submission wrestling skills and become a much more tactically sound fighter. Barnett is still a very dangerous striker, but he seldom succumbs to the temptation to engage in a brawl opting instead to control the action on the mat with the goal of a submission or a convincing decision victory. This re-engineered skill set and approach to the game, combined with his natural size, strength and conditioning has made him one of the best heavyweights in the sport.

Rizzo, on the other hand, never did much to build upon his strength as a kickboxer. Making this even more problematic is the transformation of the sport that’s gone on around him, with one dimensional fighters specializing in a specific fighting discipline being replaced by well rounded hybrids. While Rizzo was standing still in his progression as a fighter, the sport zoomed past him. His heavy hands and feet mean that he’ll always be a dangerous opponent, but beyond that he’s an “analog�? fighter in a sport that’s gone “digital�?.

In addition to the inherent desire to avenge his 2001 defeat, Barnett has another strong incentive in that a victory over Rizzo could very well set the table for a long-awaited battle against Fedor Emelianenko. The two never met during the PRIDE era, though Barnett famously called out “The Last Emperor" saying in Japanese "omae wa mou shindeiru" which translated means that Emelianenko “may already be dead". If you’ve already guessed that it’s a line from Barnett’s favorite anime, “Fist of the North Star" (Hokuto No Ken) you’re way ahead of the game. Further endearing himself to the Japanese fans, Barnett is an unapologetic otaku who at one point suggested that he spent most of his money on ‘video games, comic books, DVDs and action figures’. If you’re not familiar with Barnett’s career in Japan, pay attention to his ring entrance music at the Affliction show which will no doubt be the theme song from “Fist of the North Star" (‘Ai o torimodose’)as has become his trademark.

As noted above, Rizzo is still a very dangerous striker who always has a ‘puncher’s chance’ (or in this case a ‘kicker’s chance’) against any opponent. Beyond that, however, is the reality that while Rizzo has become an older fighter who has upgraded his game minimally from when the two first met, Barnett has become a significantly better fighter. With Rizzo’s struggles against the likes of Gan McGee and Roman Zentsov, a matchup against a fighter on the short list of best heavyweights in the world doesn’t bode well. For Barnett, anything less than a submission or unanimous decision victory will be a major disappointment.