Josh Barnett on Randy Couture and the ‘next paper champion’

“Let’s get straight to it and say that Randy did a phenomenal job at UFC 74 in defending his title. As a fan and a fellow Washingtonian I was happy to see him win. But as for the title itself — it still sits in my house. No one in UFC ever beat me for it, and as far as I am concerned, no one in the UFC can be the heavyweight champion until they take that belt off of me in the cage. At the post fight press conference, Dana White said ‘there isn’t anyone in the world that can beat this guy’ in reference to Randy. All this because Randy beat a guy that had less than ten fights and only one noteworthy win? That’s not even a world championship level fight, let alone reason to proclaim the winner as ‘unbeatable.’ This comment was made even more ridiculous by the fact that I was standing right there, living proof that Randy Couture is definitely beatable. ‘Unbeatable,’ Dana says. If he actually believes that, I’m more than willing to step into the cage and prove him wrong. It wouldn’t even have to be for the belt. I already got the real belt. They can keep their pile of brass they purport as the UFC Heavyweight Title and put it on their next paper champ.”

– Former UFC heavyweight champion, PRIDE star and current free agent, Josh Barnett, sends a message to UFC President Dana White via his MySpace page about how he feels about the current state of the heavyweight division in the wake of UFC 74: “Respect” this weekend. Barnett defeated Couture at UFC 36 in 2002 via technical knockout (strikes) to capture the title, but was stripped shortly thereafter when it was revealed he tested positive for steroids.

He's probably just angling for a contract but it was kinda "dicky" to say Randy is a paper champ.