All dancing aside, Barnett is one of the most likeable fighters in the game, both in and out of the Octagon, and while he was going to be painted as the villain competing in the Big Apple against the equally likeable Villante, by weigh-in day, Georgia’s Barnett knew that if the crowd wasn’t with him, at least they wouldn’t be against him.
“I knew I had the fans by weigh-ins,” he said. “When I went to weigh in, it was nuts because they were cheering for me, so it threw me all the way off. I was waiting for the boos. It’s New York, I know y’all are tough, man, so I was waiting on the boos and what not. And once we got to the weigh-ins and I walked out, they were like, ‘AHHHHHHHHHH!” I heard somebody go, “BEASTBOY!!”
“They know me, and they kinda like me? That actually helped me get back out there and be calm. So it was cool to have it like a neutral playing ground. And on top of that, Villante being as cool as he was, I knew our weigh-in wasn’t gonna be no shoving match or nothing like that.”
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Plus, there’s this:
“I was born in Spain, but the first place I ever touched was New York, so technically I’m a New Yorker,” said Barnett. “That’s why they loved me.”
The way he ended the fight, with a spinning wheel kick followed by some ground strikes, may have helped his cause, too. It was a big win for the 35-year-old, a 29-fight veteran who made a short notice debut against Ben Rothwell last May, getting submitted in the second round.
The Villante fight obviously went a lot better, and now he can settle into life in the UFC, which continues on Saturday with a bout against Martin Buday.