2017 was a big year for New Japan Pro Wrestling and AXS TV, and UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett stayed busy commentating those events alongside pro wrestling veteran announcer Jim Ross. Barnett, sidelined since late 2016 with a USADA violation, has maintained his innocence the whole time, citing tainted supplements as the culprit of the drug test’s positive result.

In an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience last summer, Barnett gave details about the USADA flag. (Transcription courtesy of MikeSwick.com)

“I’m still dealing with my USADA stuff. The supplement I took was tainted. After they tested the one I gave them, they went out and bought a whole brand new bottle, unopened, tested that one. Again, laced with the same shit. They had tested me with not that much time in between tests. My manager told me that the guy at the lab said it was such a negligible amount. It looked like whatever I had taken had been tainted in the first place. He said there is no reason why a guy my size would even bother to have such a negligible amount of whatever this shit is in my system.”

In a recent interview with MMAWeekly, the “Babyfaced Assassin” discussed his MMA career future briefly, stating that he’s not quite done with the sport.

“I’m not finished with it. I still have a lot within MMA that I want to do. There’s still a desire in me to go out and fight. I know that it is going to be a much smaller window for me in that there’s so many other things in my life. At the moment, I know the desire is there to compete, but the desire to structure my life around training camps and all that at the moment just isn’t there.

I’ll get out there and spar and work with people, so it’s not as if I don’t train or still enjoy training – because I do very much – but to make that commitment in every way that’s necessary to compete in MMA, not yet. But it is still open.”

Barnett has been tested 14 times by USADA since they began their partnership with the UFC in 2015. The 14th test yielded the positive result. He last fought September 3, 2016 in Hamburg, Germany where he beat Andrei Arlovski via third round rear-naked choke and is still listed on the UFC heavyweight roster.