Josh Barnett On Davey Richards’ Status For Bloodsport, Details Kota Ibushi Talks

GCW

With the WrestleMania weekend tradition of Josh Barnett’s bloodsport set to see it’s ninth instalment on March 30, a number of high-profile wrestlers are set for the event.

Among those are AEW’s Jon Moxley, IMPACT’s ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey and of course former NJPW star Kota Ibushi.

The event’s host Josh Barnett will also be in action, taking on Timothy Thatcher.

While the event is always highly anticipated, this year’s instalment will see Kota Ibushi step into a ring for the first time as a free agent since his NJPW exit on February 1.

Speaking to Comedy Store Wrestling, Barnett would detail how Ibushi’s appearance came about.

“I just talked to the dude. I go, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He goes, ‘Nice to see you.’ That’s it. I didn’t know he’d be willing to do Bloodsport until I saw his interview. ‘Oh s**t, I guess I better follow up with him.’ Glad that he’s coming.

I was just like, ‘Hey, if you ever want to do Bloodsport, I’d love to have you. I think it’d be great, you can display a lot of your martial arts prowess and we pride ourselves in putting together a place where athletes can really shine.’

He was favorable to it and I saw an interview online where that’s what he intended to. ‘F**k yeah, I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen,'”

While Ibushi vs Bailey is nailed on for March 30, another marquee match has been thrusted into uncertainty, that being Jon Moxley’s clash with Davey Richards.

Richards would recently announce his retirement from wrestling following the aftermath of leaked documents detailing domestic abuse allegations against him.

Discussing Richards status for Bloodsport, Barnett would say:

“It’s hard to have a guy who is retired, run in your ring, and do a match. That’s kind of the opposite of retired. We’ll sort it out.”

Josh Barnett’s BloodSport 9 is available to watch March 30, on FITE TV.

Transcript courtesy of Fightful.

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• Josh Barnett's Bloodsport
• kota ibushi
• GCW
• davey richards

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