BARNETT: Josh Barnett, 16-1 in MMA, is the current and 10th Open Weight King of Pancrase and recently beat the current Middleweight KOP Yuki Kondo at the Pancrase 10th Anniversary show. Barnett was the youngest UFC heavyweight champion ever but was stripped of the title due to drug use and now competes regularly as a New Japan pro wrestler. Barnett can do everything. He’s not invincible (Pedro Rizzo taught him that) but he continues to improve his game and looks better every time you see him. His stand-up is refined from multiple kickboxing and Pankration matches in local Seattle competitions. His submissions are smooth from working with “The Wizard” Matt Hume for the last few years. Josh is not without his weaknesses and for a long time it was conditioning. The one blemish on his record was the loss to Pedro Rizzo at UFC 30 where he was KO’d.
ROOZE: Dutch kickboxer and MTBN Super Heavyweight Champion Rene Rooze fights MMA for just the 7th time in his 8-year career. Rooze is 5-2 in MMA and 1-3 in the K-1 but has an overall kickboxing record of 32-6-1 with 4 KOs. His biggest MMA bouts have been against Enson Inoue, Heath Herring and Ivan Salaverry. Rene’s MMA career highlight was when scored a big win over Salaverry at the 2003 K-1 Grand Prix. Ivan was in control on the mat and a stand up revealed a badly dislocated finger. Rooze won but showed nothing in respect to ground skills.
MY PICK: No disrespect to Rooze here but I don’t think Barnett took this bout because the challenge intrigued him. There was speculation Barnett didn’t enter the Pride GP for fear of damaging his professional wrestling career with a loss against Fedor Emelianenko. If there is any truth to that theory, he obviously considers Rooze an easy mark. And fortunately for Rene, in this case so do I. Josh has no fear in standing with a good kickboxer, he’s done it before and paid for it when he was out of his element. With Rooze, Barnett will likely test the waters and when the opportunity presents itself he’ll take Rene down and submit him. I feel it will be Barnett by submission in the 1st Rd.