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The moment has finally arrived! I am finally getting back in the ring after being unable to fight for over one year. I will be stepping into the main event of World Victory Road's premier event: Sengoku March 5th at Yoyogi Stadium. My opponent -none other than Judo Olympic Gold Medalist and former PRIDE fighter Hidehiko Yoshida.

This match on first appearance may seem to be simply a fight between two athletes but there is history in this match. I fought in PRIDE 28 in February last year against Yoshida's own student, Kazuhiro Nakamura defeating him by Sleeper Choke. But there is an even longer history from the rivalry of Judo vs. Catch Wrestling which dates back 100 years or more. One of the more famous stories involving this rivalry was when Catch Wrestler Ad Santel defeated 5th degree black belt Tokugoro Itoh with a slam so powerful it fractured the skull and TKO'd his Judo opponent Itoh. Since Itoh was considered one of the best Judoka in the world, Santel proclaimed himself, "The Judo World Champion". The Kodakan sent many Judoka to avenge the loss and more importantly the insult, but rare was success against the Catch Wrestler, Santel. In the end, Santel claimed victory over many of the top judoka of the time: Taro Miyake via slam TKO, 4th degree black belt Daisuke Sakai, and 5th degree black belt Reijiro Nagata again by TKO.

Times have changed but will Judo be able get the win against Catch Wrestling in this century's Judo vs. Catch Wrestling rivalry? Nakamura was beaten. One of Judo's most dominant players of the last ten years, Pawel Natsula, tapped out. Can the teacher avenge the student? Can Yoshida bring honor back to Judo and avenge these losses. Only way to know is to strap up the boots, check the tape, get in the ring a lock horns in the center. Only one will win and I intend to make it 3-0 for Catch Wrestling in the 21st century.

Josh Barnett student, Megumi Fujii, is to compete in Smackgirl's 115lb tournament starting this Feb. 14th in Tokyo Japan. Fujii is still undefeated with an overall record of 14-0 and is putting it on the line against all-comers in this invitational to find who is the strongest in the world at 115lbs. Grapplers like Cindy Hales and Ana Michelle Tavares, wrestlers like Lisa Wardand Kyoko Takabayashi and strikers Edge Saito and Su Hi Ham have all been named as entrants in this tournament. All are aiming to take the crown but maybe even more so, they are aiming to be the first to defeat Fujii, the pound-for-pound best female fighter in the world. Megumi has defeated Ward, Takabayashi and Tavares in fights before, but she is taking no chances…which is why she came to the OC to train with me at CSW.

Megumi has been training very hard packing on muscle but also refining and improving her skills is striking, wrestling and submission. In addition, because Megumi is preparing for this tournament other fighters have come to help her in her training. Shayna Baszler, Shannon Hooper and Ginele Marquez or as I like to call them, "The Angels of Destruction", have been pushing Megumi in practice and keeping her on her toes. In addition, Fatal Femmes fighter 3-0 Sophie Bagherdai has been pushing the pace in sparring, and Leka Viera Black Belt -Kris Shaw- has been using her BJJ skills to prepare Megumi for that style of the game as well. It's been a veritable female MMA superstar training camp that has helped Megumi to not only reach an even higher potential but all of the fighters have also raised the bars on their own games by training in such a high level environment.

Course, training can't be the only thing a person does right? So this is why playtime is a must! I sometimes play Team Fortress online with Shayna and friends but since she was here and in the flesh, we threw down on a Gears of War frag fest. I have to admit, I was cocky….and it came back to bite me as she took some rounds from me. But after getting decapitated by a shotgun blast two many times I was able to pull it together and just get the overall lead on her, 3 games to 2. We also hit the co-op mode two and much to the delight of an observing Megumi, we ran around like crazy people as we tried to get away from a Berserker. Fun times, fun times.

We all paid a visit to our awesome sponsors at Affliction/Sinful while everyone was here in town and generally wasted Tom's day away babysitting us. After a belly full of Thai food though, all was well. Through the Xtreme Couture line I am happy to announce that a new Josh Barnett t-shirt has been released and should now be on sale. It's my and Eric's idea on a mercenary banner with Latin on the front that translates to the phrase on the back: "We Deal in Death! No Tears, No Regrets." Check it out.

It was also very fortunate that two of our other great supporters, Jake Shannon of Scientific Wrestling and Matt Booth of Room 101 Silver were able to come down and hang with us. Jake and Matt took some video and photos of us all having a blast training and then Shannon and I took everyone to amazing little pizza and pasta joint called, Mamalucco's in Brea. It got great food but is also the kind of place where you test the elasticity of the skin on belly after stuffing so hard. One day won't kill yah anyways. On the business side of things, I am involved in some great projects with both Jake and Matt and hope to be able to finish them for everybody this year. How does more DVD's, merchandise and JB silver jewelry sound?

Last year was dismal in the way of fighting for me but big things are in the works for this year and I am hoping to make this year the most successful to date. I can't wait to repay all of you for you patience in supporting me this year. You won't be disappointed.

Abayo,


Josh

PS. Rumor control. I have never been offered a match to fight in M-1 or against Aleksander Emelianenko. Alek's has expressed to me personally his desire for a rematch but without a promotion to make it happen then it doesn't matter. I don't need to make this fight happen but I would gladly give him his rematch if it was offered to me. It's no sweat to me to fight him.

Also, to my knowledge there was never a Roger Gracie vs. Yoshida match. We have been talking with WVR for a long time creating a contract and Yoshida was who was offered from the beginning. I don't know who put out the rumors or why some news outlets accepted it as fact but there was never a Roger vs. Yoshida fight. Just some wishful thinking on some manager's part perhaps.