After having a supposedly clean fight record for seven years, the 39-year old Josh Barnett has been flagged for potentially using banned substances in a out-of-completion test on December 9. The former UFC Heavyweight Champion has had a controversial history of failed drug tests, but seemed to have cleaned up act until today.
Barnett (35-8) defeated Randy Couture of the UFC Heavyweight Title at UFC 36 back in 2002. He was shortly stripped of the UFC heavyweight title back in 2002 after failing two tests for banned substances. He also tested positive for anabolic steroid for an upcoming 2009 Affliction Entertainment fight with former Pride Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko, and the whole card had to be scrapped.
Barnett then competed in the Strikeforce heavyweight division and defeated fighters such as Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov. He lost however to the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Championship in 2012. In 2013, Barnett returned to the UFC in 2013 where defeated another former UFC Champion in the first round by TKO at UFC 164. Later that year, Barnett would lose to Travis Browne in the first round via TKO at UFC 168. Barnett would make a comeback in 2015 by defeating Roy Nelson via decision. He would lose his next fight to Ben Rothwell in 2016, but bounced back with victory over yet another former UFC HW Champion Andrei Arlovski.