Yahoo: Barnett's comeback win marred by low blow

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03-22-2010 06:46 AM:
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Josh Barnett waited a long time to get in less than five minutes of fighting in his return to MMA. The American heavyweight has been inactive since January of 2009. He was suspended by California for a positive drug test during the summer.

He made his return this morning in Japan at DREAM 13 against Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga. The fight ended in unfortunate fashion when Barnett drilled Mo with an errant kick. After a long delay, Siliga had little left in the tank as he was slammed by Barnett and tapped via kimura.

Frankly, the Japanese promoters on hand embarrassed themselves. Mo laid on the ground groining and moaning for over five minutes. He eventually rose to sit on the stool where he repeatedly said that he couldn't fight. For some reason, DREAM officials needed to conference about what to do and gave Mo three more minutes to recover. In the United States, a fighter is given five minutes to recover. If they can't do so the fight is ended. Apparently Siliga didn't have that option.

The circus spoiled what was developing into a decent fight. Mo actually floored Barnett with a left hook 51 seconds into the fight. Barnett turned to his clinch game to slow the pace. A few minutes he unloaded the kick into Siliga's groin. Siliga deserves a bonus. He took the fight on extremely short notice after several fighters including Tim Sylvia turned down the fight. Barnett (25-5) hopes to fight Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem next. Overeem does have a fight booked for May in the U.S. against Brett Rogers.

Noons returns with a win

K.J. Noons, a recent signee with Strikeforce, made his return to MMA to the ring for the first time since the middle of 2008. He took out Andre Dida to mixed results. Noons boxed for the entire 15 minutes controlling Dida with a solid jab. the fight never went to the ground as Noons was awarded the unanimous decision victory.



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Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
 

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