(NOAH) "I'm interested in The Sugiura Army", Josh Barnett's landing remark is about Noah

26th February 2020
Tokyo Sports

Former UFC world heavyweight champion Josh Barnett (42) is keen to return to Japan as a athlete. The image of the man with powerful qualities* remains, as in March a MMA fight has been decided as he is still at the forefront of active duty.

He continues to be familiar with MMA in Japan, not mention "RIZIN", and sent out a declaration of war to "that army". 
He last came to Japan with his beloved trainee, Victor Henry (32 = USA), and he participated in the RIZIN Hamamatsu tournament (22nd). He supported Masanori Kanehara (36), as a mentor to the favorite pupil who won the TKO, but it has already been decided that his next round will be as an athlete, when he will fight Honey Marquez (31 = Brazil) at the USA MMA tournament "Bellator $ 241" (March 13, Connecticut).

Bellator has a friendly relationship with RIZIN, although they have often fought against each other, which is why Barnett has said, "I want to fight in Japan, and once I have completed my contract with Bellator, I am ready to go to RIZIN. I want the fans to push for me, so using social media and e-mail, please send a request to RIZIN to "Bring Barnett out."

This will have been the first match in Japan since he fought Shinichi Suzukawa (36) at the IGF NEW Korakuen Hall event on April 5th 2017.
"Speaking of which, Noah seems to be under the umbrella of a big company, CyberAgent." He continued, "I am interested in Noah's Sugiura Army. Takashi Sugiura is a friend, and there is Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazushi Sakuraba and a student, Hideki Suzuki. I want to be part of them, but I think the members are too strong, so they need a strong challenger and that is why I will stand opposite them." He seemed fired up and eager to go to Noah and confront the Sugiura Army.

Barnett also mentioned the reorganization of Japanese wrestling, with Noah leading the way; "Often a big company will help a business who is having a hard time, and I think its a chance to revive professional wrestling." He also said, "I want people who understand pro-wrestling, not just people who are good at accounting and finance. Otherwise, the wrestling of tomorrow will be gone."

It seems reasonable to expect that Barnett's future movements will show him to be the same "Japanese Geek" as ever.

Link to original article from Tokyo Sports
Picture credit: Tokyo Sports

*There is no equivalent or easy translation for the word used "名伯楽" (Mei hakuraku) as it relates to a hero from Chinese folklore who distinguished between good and bad horses, and also changed a white mare into a black bay.