http://www.cagepotato.com/josh-barnett- ... e-bob-sapp
Josh Barnett's appeal of his denial of licensure in the state of California was postponed for a fourth time yesterday, after Barnett failed to show up to the hearing. The Babyface Assassin had a good excuse, though — he was busy beating down Bob Sapp at an Inoki Genome Federation pro-wrestling event in Tokyo. Though Barnett's attorney appeared at the hearing, it wasn't good enough for the California State Athletic Commission, which rescheduled his case until April 20th. Said Barnett's attorney, Michael J. DiMaggio:
“We’ve been diligently preparing to present Mr. Barnett’s case and his defense, and he was unable to be here today and we are extremely shocked and disappointed that the commission ruled that they would not go forward with the hearing without Mr. Barnett being present. It’s particularly surprising in light of the fact that we’re not aware of any rule or regulation that insists that he be here...This is obviously the commission’s rules, which are very vague and unknown to us...Presenting issues and raising issues relating to the test results, the chain of custody, the protocol, those type of issues are issues that can be addressed without Mr. Barnett being present. His presence and his ability to be cross-examined is irrelevant to those issues.”
But according to new CSAC Executive Director George Dodd, Barnett was informed by letter that he'd have to appear in person: “The letter is very clear that you must appear before the commission. It doesn’t say anything else besides appear. You can bring counsel, but it says the word ‘appear’ in there.”
Josh Barnett hasn't competed in MMA since testing positive for the anabolic steroid Drostanolone last July, which led to a cancellation of his scheduled Affliction: Trilogy match against Fedor Emelianenko, and the eventual scrapping of Affliction's MMA promotion. Barnett vowed to appeal the test results, but his hearings have been pushed back due to additional time needed to gather information from the testing facility and inclement weather. Regarding the 4/20 date of the next hearing, DiMaggio wrung his hands about the futility of it all: “That will be nine months into the ineligibility of Mr. Barnett, which begins to beg the question…at what point does it become worth it to pursue this versus just waiting out the ineligibility period and preparing to move on?”