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From Barnett's Camp: Unofficial!!

World Victory Road has confirmed that Japanese star Hidehiko Yoshida will meet Josh Barnett in the main event of the promotion's March 5 debut card at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 1 in Tokyo, Japan.

It was previously expected that the Barcelona Games judo gold medalist would meet star grappler Roger Gracie (Pictures) in the marquee fight for the Sengoku card. After aggressively pursuing the free agent Barnett, WVR reportedly changed plans for their main event last week.

Roger Gracie will be on hand at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 1 for the event, where WVR will announce his participation for its second event, slated for May. The source further confirmed that WVR hoped to build toward a Gracie-Yoshida fight in the fall.

Yoshida, 38, has not competed since New Year's Eve of 2006, where he was stopped in brutal fashion by English heavyweight James Thompson.

Barnett also last competed in MMA on NYE 2006.

I think Barnett is going to smash him, but it's a good fight to pick up for a warm-up.

Also, according to a source of mine in Japan that is close to someone at WVR the fight is on ;)

Finally he is going to fight someone. Its been over a year!

THX. GREAT TO HEAR HE IS BACK AND YOU GUYS ARE RIGHT THIS SHOULD BE A GREAT WARM UP FOR JOSH!

Josh is actually incorrect - WVR are interested in a Gracie/Yoshida fight.

The only thing that changed that is because Barnett/Yoshida is bigger, so they are going to try to book Gracie/Yoshida in the sumeer.

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Over the weekend World Victory Road announced that former UFC champion and PRIDE veteran Josh Barnett would fight Olympic Judo gold medalist and PRIDE veteran Hidehiko Yoshida on the promotions March 5 debut.

Barnett’s last fight was a close decision loss to current UFC interim champion and former PRIDE champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at PRIDE Shockwave 2006. Barnett holds wins over Aleksander Emelianenko, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Mark Hunt, Yuki Kondo, Randy Couture, Pawel Nastula, Semmy Schilt, Dan Severn, and the aforementioned Nogueira.

Yoshida’s last fight was a TKO loss to James Thompson at PRIDE Shockwave 2006. Despite a 7-5-1 record, the Japanese judoka holds wins over Mark Hunt, Don Frye, Kiyoshi Tamura, and David “Tank” Abbott.

The card is also set to feature Takanori Gomi and Ryo Kawamura against currently unknown opponents. Phil Baroni is set to face Sanae Kikuta, while PRIDE’s 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix champion Kazuo Misaki will fight Siyar Bahadurzda. The only other confirmed fight is between Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and Makoto Takimoto.

Yosh is going to get hurt... i dont see josh having any trouble at all with this fight, should be a good warm up fight tho.