Sherdog.com: What were your thoughts on Cormier’s performance?
Barnett: Daniel was on point. His strategizing in the ring was impressive. I know it comes from his freestyle wrestling background, knowing how many rounds you’ve got and what the time is and what the score is. He knows how to use all those confines of the match itself. It was so evident, even while I was in the ring, that this guy has it down. He knows exactly how to fight in a system effectively, and he’s a bad dude, just as an athlete and as a fighter. I thought, “Well, s---. It doesn’t matter how much damage you do [at this point]. If you don’t take this guy out, he is primed and ready to put you in a bad spot, because he is always coming out on top.” It’s not just about going out there and trying to murder somebody. It’s also trying to win a fight. I think most of these guys would have a tough time even lasting three rounds with him, let alone five. If they can go five, good luck trying to outwork and outscore Cormier. He is the kind of guy that it’s going to take either a lucky shot to get him or the right kind of fighter [to beat him], like myself.
Sherdog.com: I think that just about everyone is hoping to see both you and Cormier transition to the UFC. Is that your wish? Would that be your ideal after your last Strikeforce fight?
Barnett: It would be nice. On one hand, I want to see Daniel go out there and fight people in the UFC just to watch him maul them and take these dudes out. I would sit back and say, “I’ve been saying for a long time that Daniel Cormier is one of the absolute best fighters in the world right now.” I know you [media] like to look at our fight like, whatever, because it’s not in the UFC, but people don’t understand that.
Sherdog.com: Who likes to look at it that way? I don’t like to look at it that way.
Barnett: Well, you’re in the minority. Most of the press doesn’t really give a lot of credence to anything besides the UFC, and a lot of the fans are really UFC fans. We don’t really have the mass MMA fan base anymore. That’s not any fault of the product itself, but the fans, for whatever reason, don’t have any concept of trying to understand the game as a whole. That’s fine that you don’t really understand this, but I would argue that the fight between me and Daniel was probably the best heavyweight bout of last year. Look at the fight between me and Daniel, and then look at the way we’re ranked. I think some [outlets] have me ranked, like, 10th or 11th. OK, you really think that those nine guys ahead of me are really that much better than me? I don’t know what the [expletive] you think, but at the end of the day, I just gave up on rankings and all that crap. It didn’t really matter, because I just wanted to go out there and smash everybody anyway. I’ll let everybody else sit back and bicker about who belongs where, but it’s not like I’m blind. It’s not like I don’t see it.
Sherdog.com: The rankings don’t necessarily mean that if someone is ranked lower that he can’t beat someone ranked above him on that list, and I think the heavyweight class is one of the better examples. You could potentially have the chance to fight some of these guys ranked above you if you join the UFC. I know you say you want to smash everybody, and that has been your attitude for a long time, but are there maybe one or two guys, specifically, who you are chomping at the bit to fight?
Barnett: The thing is, I’m not really chomping at the bit to fight anyone. I’m chomping at the bit to fight everyone. There are names that keep coming up. Personally, I would love to take out [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira, once and for all, because I don’t like the way our last match ended. I felt that it was politically derived to try and make for a rubber match between us in order to make more money. I don’t really feel like I lost that decision. Although, my philosophy is that if you don’t finish your opponent, then you have to accept whatever is given to you. I just want another crack at him, but I don’t know if he’ll be around long enough to even make that fight happen. Other than that, I keep seeing that everyone always wants me to fight Frank Mir for some reason. Everyone thinks it’s going to be the two American grappling heavyweights putting on this spectacle of grappling extravagance, I guess, but a fight’s a fight. Sure, I’ll fight Frank Mir. At one point, he was considered a Top 5 guy, I think. He’s a well-known staple of the UFC, but I don’t sit around at night waiting for an opportunity to fight Frank Mir or to fight Cain or any of these other guys who are the top guys in the UFC. I just want to fight them because they are there. It’s like mountains. Why do we climb them? Because they exist. With people, why do you want to hurt them? Because they breathe.
Sherdog.com: One UFC heavyweight who seems to have taken a personal dislike toward you has been Antonio Silva, who was also a part of Strikeforce’s heavyweight grand prix before losing to Cormier. Do you know what that is all about? Do you feel the same way toward him?
Barnett: Well, I don’t like him specifically because he started talking smack about me for reasons that I don’t really know, man. I think he’s probably just overly sensitive. Personally, I couldn’t really tell you, because up until he started dogging me, I had never really spoken to the guy. I hadn’t interacted with him a whole lot, save for saying hello here and there. Actually, the night that he started trying to dog me out in public was the night that he beat Fedor [Emelianenko]. Even before he got to the press conference, [Strikeforce] had me speak about the fights that night, and I actually talked about how well Silva had done, and how well he executed his game plan and how he was constantly working for the finish. I said he had improved a lot over the years and showed a lot of varied skills, and he did. He looked good, and I applauded his efforts, only to find out that he just went on a tirade about me for reasons [of which] I have no understanding. For the most part, I don’t talk about it, because if I don’t like you, I ain’t gonna help you. I’m not going to make you a press-worthy item. My whole thing is that if anybody ever wants to fight me…if you have a problem and really want to fight, don’t sit around and wait for some promoter to take his thumb out of his butt and make it happen. Just come and find me, and I will fight you anywhere and anytime. If you want it to be personal, then it will be like that.
CY
