Josh Barnett and Roy Nelson Let It All Hang out in Japan—For Better and Worse

Now this was a heavyweight fight.

For better and worse.

As two of the UFC’s most colorful big men, Josh Barnett and Roy Nelson each emptied his complete bag of tricks on Saturday in Japan at Fight Night 75. Nothing fancy, just a couple of old warhorses letting it all hang out during a surprisingly fun, surprisingly strategic but predictably lowdown, greasy battle over almost absolutely nothing.

When it was over, Barnett won a clear-cut unanimous decision (50-45, 48-47 x 2), though the spoils of victory likely amount to little more than the chance to move a step or two up the UFC’s specious official rankings.

With new heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum on the shelf until next year and contenders already stacked four or five deep, the 37-year-old Barnett remains on the outside looking in for the foreseeable future. He’d need another quality win to join the pack and two or three to climb anywhere near the top.

But this matchup with Nelson was never about the heavyweight pecking order. This was two men with more than 70 fights between them—not to mention similarly unruly personal philosophies—putting on a show for the UFC’s yearly stopover at the legendary Saitama Super Arena.

The important thing, Barnett said when it was over, was the satisfaction of a job well done.

"It's not about belts, it's about the way people fight,” he told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik inside the cage. “Roy Nelson fights like he means it. He's the kind of people we need in the UFC. That's what people want to see. I gave Roy everything I had. He took it and came back.”

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With a 637-day stretch of inactivity distancing him from a tough loss to Travis Browne at UFC 168, Barnett returned to the Octagon looking re-energized. He weighed in at a svelte 239 pounds—some 15 pounds lighter than for his last two UFC appearances—and the major topic of his pre-fight conversations was how hard he’d trained to get prepared.

Nelson was not svelte and did not fill up interviews with talk of his intense training. He tipped the scales at a typically roly-poly 261 and entered as more than a 2-1 underdog, according to Odds Shark. Even the analysis on Fox Sports 1 boiled Nelson’s chances of winning down to some simple pre-fight bullet points: stay out of the clinch and throw the right hand.

Yet Nelson proved slightly cagier than oddsmakers, analysts or even Barnett anticipated.

This may have been the most measured and technical fight of Big Country’s UFC career. He surprised Barnett with a few takedowns and, if nothing else, piled up some riding time in the early going. He countered well with uppercuts and landed several of those hard right hands, just none flush enough to really put Barnett in trouble.

Nelson even tried a head kick or two.

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As the fight wore on, however, Barnett’s conditioning and pace proved too much. The former UFC heavyweight champion fought much of the bout from a southpaw stance to mitigate Nelson’s power. His forward pressure was relentless, and his fluid punching combinations found their mark with more frequency and from longer range than Nelson’s.

Barnett’s best work went to the body. He punished Nelson’s rotund midsection with slapping punches, thudding kicks and stabbing knees. He used many of them to bully the shorter fighter back against the fence and into the clinch, where Barnett is among the best operators in the world.

He wore Nelson down on the inside and by the end had set a couple of impressive and unexpected company records, according to official UFC statistician Michael Carroll:

In the extra fourth and fifth rounds—hardly necessary for most heavyweight bouts—things got sweaty. The action bogged down, and the fight company’s hot cageside mics broadcast every huff and puff to a television audience already weary from five mostly irrelevant undercard bouts.

As the final horn sounded, both Barnett and Nelson stopped cold in the middle of the cage, bent over, put their hands on their knees and just breathed.

Nobody puked. We were probably lucky for that.

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Barnett conducted much of his post-fight interview with Anik in Japanese. This victory marked a successful return to the country where he spent the bulk of his MMA career fighting in Pride FC and where he frequently works as a professional wrestler.

And so we were left feeling unexpectedly charitable about these guys’ prospects. Neither Barnett nor Nelson is going to be UFC champion, but at least they proved they can still tell a compelling story over the course of five rounds.

Even at 1-5 in his last six bouts, Nelson is likely safe from the chopping block. Such is life for heavyweights, and such is policy now for the UFC, which must be as concerned with keeping talent away from its stateside competitors as filling its ranks with new contenders.

Likewise, with all the old-timers currently kicking around the heavyweight division, Barnett—while frequently inactive and occasionally disinterested—isn’t going to be irrelevant anytime soon.

No matter what happens, future fights against fellow veterans such as Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski and even Alistair Overeem will likely always be there for him.

Assuming another two-year break isn’t in his immediate plans.