I didn't want to put words in people's mouth and say "he always gets a pass from fans" but to me it seems like people kind of turn the other cheek. This is the 3rd or 4th time he has been busted yet people have always liked him. Is it his personality? Or am I completely off base and people actually hate the guy?
He's basically a very cool nerd that likes anime and heavy metal. And he could kill just about anyone on this planet with his bare hands. I find it very hard to dislike the guy.
People like his personality and the fact that he's been fighting since the old days of the mid 90s and is still a top ranked HW contender. But the fact is he's been busted so many times and he single handedly killed an organization when he pissed hot before the Fedor fight.
No, his career is forever tainted and has been, doesn't mean i can hate the dude. Just seems really mellow and cool, but his career is forever tainted due to his history
He's been getting busted since before most people started watching MMA. I think people just accept that he's using. He's also not particularly relevant in the title scene either so that helps with people's attitude towards it.
No one is shocked he pisses hot,he has done it so many times,no one has any delusion he is clean.Honestly it just makes me sad he looks like he looks and yet juices
Not sure I really buy the latter, I think Affliction were done after that show reguardless. It does help Barnett that he's never really talked up as a GOAT contender plus of course his fans have never been ones to bash other fighters for potential PED use, Anderson and Jones fans(and indeed Silva himself) on the other hand were forever claiming PED use for Pride era fighters and there own guys superiority so when they were busted the backlash was massive.
Legit very skilled fighter. Cool personality. Been a figure in basically every notable org. The fact that he was never super ripped does tend to have an effect on people, if he got caught juicin' and looked like Ubereem people would probably think worse of him ALSO although he's a very skilled fighter, there hasn't been any hype train around him in over a decade like there was with Ubereem, he hasn't been going around smashing an entire division and in GOAT debates like Jon Jones and Silva..which is where you see a lot of the hate for people like Overeem and people disregarding Silva's spot as the best MW ever. The fanboys of other fighters don't need the ammo in arguments since his name never comes up. If Barnett popped and was in the title mix people would be shitting on him more.
Yeah, it´s because of his light skin tone he gets love even after. The fact that he is cool and down to earth has nothing to do with it. A cheater yes, but still likeable. Romero is fucked in the head, the god thing is just stupid, he could be white and I would still think he is retarded. The flying spaghett monster does not exist.
Whatever he keeps taking clearly isn't working because he still looks like a fridge. Wat? More people hate Brock than Yoel. Also Josh has a 10/10 personality.
He gets a pass because he doesn't look like Yoel Romero or Hector Lombard. Clearly whatever Barnett is taking isn't working or is just getting him to a level that most people who achieve with just normally working out. We kinda feel bad for him.
It's nice to have a metalhead in MMA whose musical ceiling isn't Drowning Pool or Linkin Park. That's being said, I totally understand that this argument makes absolutely no sense to those who aren't into metal or Barnett's other hobbies. There will always be an irrational part to what makes us like some athletes more than others, it's not only about statistics, records and MMAth.
Well he got plenty of backlash back in the day when he tested positive in the UFC...there just wasn't as much media around the sport, and the UFC just sort of moved past it quickly. The only real significant time that his testing positive had a negative effect on the sport was before the Fedor Affliction fight. Lots of people hated him for awhile back then too. This time...eh...obviously it hasn't helped him too much in this UFC run.
