**Following a long battle with USADA, UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett was issued a public reprimand and no suspension for an out-of-competition drug test failure. Barnett was tested in December 2016 and his test came back with Ostarine found in his system. Barnett was able to prove the substance was ingested due to a tainted supplement. While other fighters such as Yoel Romero and Tim Means have been able to successfully prove they had a legitimately tainted supplement, both still faced suspensions because of the fact the banned substance was still found in their systems. Barnett is free to resume his career, although contesting the drug test has led to him missing more than one-year of his career. Barnett’s last fight was in September 2016, where he defeated Roy Nelson by decision and turned 40 years old this past November. Barnett issued the following statement after the announcement:
I proved my innocence as I stated from the beginning and now I can look towards getting back in the ring in the neat (sic) future. The time I lost though can never be regained. It should not havr (sic) had to come to all of this. Ever onwards.
**Invicta FC will be holding a card tonight from Salt Lake City, Utah at the Union Event Center on Fight Pass at 9 pm Eastern with the following card:
*Mizuki Inoue vs. Virna Jandiroba for the vacant strawweight title
*DeAnna Bennett vs. Karina Rodriguez
*Christina Marks vs. Milana Dudieva
*Pearl Gonzalez vs. Kali Robbins
*Fernanda Priscila vs. Minna Grusander
*Kay Hansen vs. Kal Schwartz
*Chelsea Chandler vs. Kerri Kenneson
*Rebekah Levine vs. Jillian DeCoursey
*Tracy Cortez vs. Kaytlin Neil
The Invicta FC card has received additional promotion due to UFC middleweight Elias Theodorou serving as a ring card boy for the fights tonight. It is a unique deal as Theodorou is allowed to wear several sponsors for his ring card outfit tonight, something he would not be allowed to do for his UFC fights. Theodorou received a lot of media attention for this because he is not doing it as a joke and it has led to several stories on Invicta that would not be out there if not for this unique idea.
**The LFA 36 card on Friday night featured one of the weirdest endings to a fight in recent memory. During a heavyweight post-lim (fights that air after the broadcast concludes) between Drew Chatman and Irvins Ayala, Chatman used a leg kick to sweet Ayala to the mat and followed with a diving hammer fist. In driving the hammer fist, Chatman flew down into Ayala’s knee and knocked himself out. Ayala, stood up and stepped onto Chatman’s back to celebrate and did a somersault off his back and was disqualified for standing on his spine. Below are the rest of the results from the LFA card in Cabazon, California, featuring a number of first-round stoppages:
*Taylor Johnson def. Corey Turner by TKO at 0:36 of Round 1
*Tommy Aaron def. Troy Guerrero by rear-naked choke at 4:15 of Round 1
*Herdem Alacabek def. Jonathan Noriega by TKO at 2:19 of Round 1
*Andre Ewell def. Trent Meaux by KO at 1:41 of Round 1
*Christian Aguilera def. Ricardo Seixas by KO at 1:47 of Round 2
*Jamall Emmers def. Guilherme Faria by TKO at 1:18 of Round 3
*Ricky Simon def. Vinicius Zani by KO at 0:59 of Round 1 to retain the LFA bantamweight title
**A featherweight rematch between Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson has been announced for the UFC’s return to Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, April 21st. This is a quick turnaround for Edgar, who was knocked out for the first time in his career by Brian Ortega at UFC 222 on March 3rd. Swanson is also coming off a loss to Ortega from this past December and will look to avenge his November 2014 loss to Edgar, where Edgar submitted Swanson with four seconds remaining in their five-round bout.
**A welterweight fight between Bryan Barberena and Jake Ellenberger was announced earlier this week by the UFC but is already off. The two were announced to fight at the UFC Fight Night card on Saturday, June 1st in Utica, New York, but it was reported by the MMA DNA outlet that Barberena will be unable to fight due to an injury. Ariel Helwani added that the fight was being discussed with the two parties but was never finalized when the UFC announced the bout on their website.
**UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley underwent surgery on his right foot on Friday, which nearly cost him his win against Andre Soukhamthath earlier this month at UFC 222. In the third round of their fight, O’Malley was comfortably ahead but was unable to put any weight on the foot and was on his back for the duration of the round with Soukhamthath getting on top of O’Malley and could not finish O’Malley, who won the fight by unanimous decision.
**Combate has reported that a welterweight fight between Sean Strickland and Elizeu Zaleski has been added to the UFC 224 pay-per-view on Saturday, May 12th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fight brings the bout total to 12 on the show, which will also feature a bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington and a middleweight between a pair of former 205-pound champions in Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI – WWF Coliseum Video: Smack ‘Em, Whack ‘Em (Patreon-only)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review this 1993 Coliseum Home video release, featuring Bret Hart winning the WWF title from Ric Flair and the first WWF ladder match between Hart and Shawn Michaels. We also are joined by Espresso Executive Producer Jay Hunter from OSW Review.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/17713168
*****
NEW JAPAN CUP FINAL REVIEW WITH JOHN POLLOCK & WH PARK
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/f6wgcx/POST-WRESTLING-WH-Park-March-2018.mp3
*****
upNXT 3/22/18: A New Beginning, Adam Cole vs. Kassius Ohno, Roderick Strong finds a partner
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/9xwtcg/UPNXTMAR222018.mp3
*****
BWE 3/21/18: wXw 16 Carat Gold, ZSJ in New Japan Cup, Demise of 5 Star Wrestling
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/hdanqj/180321_BWE.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 3/20/18: Daniel Bryan cleared; attacked by Owens/Zayn
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/rdd4cx/180321_RASD.mp3
*****
BREAKING NEWS AUDIO: Daniel Bryan cleared by the WWE
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/rwv37e/BREAKING-NEWS-Daniel-Bryan-Cleared.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 3/19/18: The Ultimate Deletion, Roman vs. US Marshals, WWE 24
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/n6hsbp/180319_RAR.mp3
*****
POST ROUNDTABLE #3 (w/ upNXT’s Braden Herrington & Bartender Dave)
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/4x478s/180318_Roundtable3.mp3
*****
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