Former UFC Champion Tim Sylvia Declines Josh Barnett Fight at DREAM, Considers Mariusz Pudzianowski

Former UFC heavyweight champion “Maine-iac” Tim Sylvia (25-6) declined to fight Fighters.com’s eighth-ranked heavyweight “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (20-5) at DREAM.13 in Yokohama March 22, according to MMA Junkie.

MMA Junkie didn’t disclose the reason Sylvia declined the matchup, but reported that a search is underway for another opponent.

Sylvia’s downward spiral bottomed-out at Adrenaline MMA IV in Omaha last September when he TKO’d Jason Riley (6-2) in the first round.  He had been stopped in three consecutive losses prior to his win, twice respectably to  Fighters.com Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (31-1)  and fourth-ranked “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1), but also inexplicably by former boxing champion “Merciless” Ray Mercer (1-1).

Despite the nearly career-ending experience in the gimmicky fight versus Mercer, MMA Junkie reports that Sylvia is considering another gimmicky fight verus World’s Strongest Man competition champion Mariusz Pudzianowski (1-0) at Moosin in Worchester April 23.

To be fair, Sylvia probably craves frequency over quality at this point in his fight back to the top, but Fighters.com sees no excuse for Sylvia to fight Pudzianowski.