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In his first fight with Big Nog Josh Barnett showed some truly world class grappling: great scrambles, aggressive offense, beautiful submission defense, escaping from Nogueira's armlock and he showed some amazing sweeps and reversals from his back, demonstrating a great understanding of leverage and physics and used them to reverse Nog which wasn't an easy task considering Big Nog was a De La Riva black belt and world champion in BJJ at the brown belt level.
On offense Barnett had Nog in multiple, tight submissions. He first had him in a tight guillotine, then had him in a tight leg lock but Nog escaped. Later in the fight while threatening Nogs arm with a Kimura from side mount, Josh underhooked Nogs leg and went for a knee bar and when Nog defended that Barnett quickly transitioned to Nogs other leg and basically knee barred Nog at the buzzer, hyper extending the shit out of his leg as the bell rang. Incredible how he was able to see these openings and capitalize on them against someone as good as Big Nog.
As impressive as this was, it raised questions about Barnett's skills in other areas. His fight against Aleksander Emelianenko really put into perspective how well rounded he was.
Aleksander was 6'5 255lbs with a huge reach, a sophisticated Sambo game and Fedor like handspeed with incredible instincts and reflexes. He was 24 years old and had a 5-1 record with his only loss coming to prime Mirko Cro Cop. It's safe to say he wasn't taking any easy roads in his early career as he fought Mirko, Barnett, Werdum, Sergei and Nastula in his first 11 professional fights. He was in incredible shape, training hard with Fedor and doing training camps at high altitude.
Barnett wasn't taking any easy roads either as he fought 7 times that year in 2006, including fights against Hunt, Mirko, Big Nog 2x, Nastula and Nakamura on top of this fight with Aleks where he really showcased how tough, gritty and well rounded he was.
As the fight starts Aleks comes out looking fierce. He's light on his feet, he's fainting, and throwing combinations at blistering speed through Barnetts guard and past his pary and block style defense while also stuffing almost every clinch and takedown attempt Barnett throws at him. You simply dont see this kind of movement from most of todays top HWs. Regardless of the outcome, Aleksander showed some insane potential for a 24 year old with just 6 fights.
Aleks basically beat the shit out of Barnett for 6 minutes straight landing the harder shots, stuffing every clinch, takedown and controlled the center of the ring. His movement and speed were something to behold considering how big he was. With that said as the fight went on the 10 minute first round ate away at Aleks and showed how tough it is to keep a high pace for that long against someone as tough as Barnett.
By the 7 minute mark Aleks was taking deep breaths and his movement had slown down significantly while Barnett was still bouncing around, going to the body with power and starting to throw big right hands with bad intentions. Aleks won the first round but it was clear the momentum was shifting into Barnetts favor.
When the second round started Barnett finally made a successful entry into the clinch, secured a bodylock and took Aleks down and submitted the exhausted Emelianenko with a keylock to win in impressive fashion.
This fight showed how much skill these guys had. Aleks displayed great potential, showing fantastic speed, combinations and wrestling defense and Barnett showed how experienced, how well rounded, how tough he was and the level of cardio and endurance he had when he was in his 20s.
Major major props to Josh Barnett. Most of today's top HWs arent this well rounded, arent this tough and aren't this slick in so many disciplines of fighting. Barnett was 6'3 255lbs, he could take a big shot, he could box, he could brawl , he could wrestle and he basically submitted Prime Nogueira and then competitively boxed a 6'5 Aleks who had great speed, insane reach, big power and Fedor like handspeed.
Barnett was a machine: a comprehensive, well rounded, well conditioned, high level fighter even by today's standards. He wasn't just some pioneer from the past who couldn't keep up with today's "evolved" HWs. I'd say Barnett at his best could have easily been around today mixing it with up and beating the best HWs in the world.
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