One thing is for certain going into this weekend’s PRIDE FC Open-Weight Grand Prix: Whoever walks away with the coveted belt will have assuredly earned it.

The field has been whittled down to just four and Josh Barnett (Pictures) is aiming to make a couple more cuts of his own.

The former King of Pancrase and UFC heavyweight champion is looking to add another belt to his collection and garner himself a crack at PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), the consensus number one mixed martial artist on the planet.

In order to get that shot he will have to get through Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) as well as the winner of a bout between Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) and PRIDE middleweight champ Wanderlei Silva (Pictures).

The confident fighter didn’t mince his words when asked about his chances of taking home the Grand Prix belt.

“I am going to take that gold belt,” Barnett told Sherdog.com.

In a showdown of two of the most well rounded heavyweights the world has to offer, Barnett will square off with a former PRIDE title holder in Nogueira.

“Minotauro,” as Nogueira is known, will provide a sturdy test for Barnett’s skills. Once considered one of the best fighters in the world, Barnett will go a long way in regaining much of the esteem he lost after back-to-back losses at the hands of “Cro Cop” in October 2004 and again Halloween weekend 2005.

This year has been much kinder to the now slim and trim “Baby-Faced Assassin,” who has shed the extra weight he carried for most of his career and is now sporting a six-pack.

Barnett has rolled off three consecutive submission victories, including two over top heavyweights Mark Hunt (Pictures) and Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures) to earn his way into Sunday’s semifinal.

In order to keep the winning streak alive he will have to get past the very tough Brazilian heavyweight, who has never been stopped in 32 professional bouts. When asked if that was an incentive Barnett responded with a rousing: “Hell yeah!”

Barnett made it clear that he never goes into a fight looking for a judge’s decision and that if you come to fight him you better be prepared for a fighter who is looking to finish.

“I have been at this for 10 years and if it’s one thing I’ve always kept in mind it’s that don’t leave it in somebody else’s hands. You don’t want to get screwed? Don’t let it go to the judges. Finish the guy — leave no doubts in anyone’s mind.”

The kid from the Pacific Northwest practices what he preaches. He has just one decision in 18 professional wins.

“And don’t leave it sitting back saying, ‘Oh that guy, that’s bullshit; I really won.’ No, you’re not going to be saying that after you fought me, ‘I thought I really won.’ You’re going to be going, you’re either going to be making excuses and saying, ‘Oh well, I just fucked up, that’s all. He didn’t really beat me,’ or you’re going to be going ‘Well, he kicked my ass that night.’ Either way everyone’s going to see that I took you out. Either I knocked you out, I TKO’d you or I took your arm or your leg and made a souvenir out of it and bronzed it and stuck it on my mantle at home next to all my belts and everything else. It’s a definite, you can’t say anything about that, you won that night. And like, when it goes to a decision, I feel like, you know, I just didn’t do my job that night. I hope things go my way, I hope I kicked his butt hard enough that I get the win, but at this point its really out of my hands so I guess I better train harder next time.”

As for a specific strategy he may employ in his quest to stop his Brazilian foe, Barnett tells us that his training regimen never really changes due to his opponents.

“For me I just train the same as always,” he said. “I train wrestling (submissions) and I train stand-up and I do lots of MMA sparring. That’s what I do.”

Seems simple enough.

“The overall point of the way I fight is I don’t worry about what they do. I make them worry about what I do,” Barnett continued. “I push my will on them, make them fight my fight and things go my way.

“I am going to sharpen my game up to the highest level so I can take him out. There’s no other reason to fight him other than to do that.”

The specter of these two athletic heavyweights dueling has left many fans and pundits salivating. Will it be a technical masterpiece? Or will it turn into an old-fashioned slugfest?

Barnett chimed in with his opinion on how the fight will play out: “[Nogueira] trying to fight his fight and me attacking, attacking at every minute uh, throughout the fight, looking to knock him out or submit him.”

And if he gets past Nogueira, whom would Barnett like to face?

“I’d rather fight Mirko just, you know, for the chance at revenge but fighting either one will be an incredible experience and a great accomplishment to beat them,” he suggested.

You can hear the contempt in Barnett’s voice as he recalls his two previous encounters with the powerful Croatian striker.

“Yeah, I’d like to fight him when I’m not either a) fluke tearing my arm out of my socket out of some totally random thing which almost makes it a non-fight or b) coming off of a shoulder injury, not training and just having a body that wont put up with the rigors of being at that level yet, just going in and saying ‘fuck it’ and fighting him anyways. You know what, in that fight I knew I was fucked up going into it so I take the loss as a loss. I still seen that I could have won the fight, even in as bad a shape as I was. It just doesn’t sit well with me. That’s fine, he beat me that night but I expect better from myself. Even if he beat me and I was at the top of my game it’d be a different story but I know I wasn’t and it bothers me.”

Well according to the Washington State native, he may well get his chance at redemption. It seems he is making Filipovic the slight favorite to get past a dangerous but smaller Silva.

“I think Mirko will win because he’s the bigger, heavier, probably more technical striker but come on, those guys can knock each other out at any second,” handicapped Barnett. “Just, it’s up in the air and I’m really indifferent to which one I get in the end. The whole thing is you gotta win. You gotta win not matter who it is.

“Whoever shows up for that second fight, I fight them and that’s the only thing I gotta keep in mind. If I’m ready to go, and I’m in shape and I’m good to go, put them in there.

Not that there is no incentive if Silva does get past the Croatian.

“If I fight him that would be cool cause I could, I’d like to beat the crap out of him for Quinton (Jackson) cause he’s a good friend of mine,” the American answered.

Silva provides a unique challenge for the heavyweights he will be facing in the Grand Prix due to his rambunctious all-out style — a style Josh was kind enough to break down for us.

“He’s just going to try to create controlled chaos as if, naw … that’s a double negative right there … an oxymoron yeah, that doesn’t really work. So he’s just going to try to create chaos-chaos. How bout that? He’s gonna want a free-for-all environment where he can be a spazz and throw all over the place,” Barnett decreed. “He ends up on his back and he’s like your little sister when you push her down and she’s kicking and flailing like mad and you can’t get a hold of her. It’s the same way except, you know, she can kick the shit out of you. And her crew will probably jump you after she does it.”

As for how he plans on countering Silva and his reckless single-minded barrage Barnett explains that vision is a major key to success when confronted with such a dangerous opponent. He conveys the fact that he knows Silva will be a threat to anyone, especially after his last knockout.

“You just gotta have a cool head and you gotta be able to read their movements and their instincts before it gets to that point and you gotta be able to have your eyes open the whole time. Um, he is smaller … but small is relative; he’ll be almost 220 pounds so he’s a heavyweight and he’s strong. He’s proven he can knockout those that they thought were the unknockoutable — Fujita.”

Awaiting the winner of the Grand Prix is Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures), the seemingly unbeatable Russian, holder of the PRIDE heavyweight strap so coveted by Barnett. Fedor is not only the top dog in PRIDE, he is the best in the world. What better opponent could there be for a man out to prove he belongs among the greats of the sport?

“If you’re fighting in any organization your main goal should be to get the uh, the belt there,” Barnett said. “And if you’re a fighter in general your main goal should be able to beat whoever they consider to be the best.

“If you’re not trying to fight that guy, then why the hell are you doing it?”

Amen.

The former UFC champ also had some choice words for his former employer as well as the athletic commission that suspended him after his shocking win over Randy Couture (Pictures) in March 2002. When asked about a possible return to the UFC in light of the stunning success they have been enjoying Barnett quipped, “It could happen but it’s not, not on my list of things to do.”

He went on to detail his belief that PRIDE FC is superior organization although he did not rule out an eventual return to the Las Vegas-based Zuffa.

“It’s just that I fight in the biggest and best organization in the world,” he expressed. “I don’t see any reason to go back down to there. I already got their title, at one point. So I’m on to bigger and better things. Um, let them do their thing and maybe at some point I will end up back there.”

Barnett also took a shot at the Nevada State Athletic Commission, claiming that his positive test for performance-enhancing anabolic agents and his subsequent suspension were not portrayed in an accurate light.

He answered a question about potential restrictions he may face if he were to sign to fight in Nevada by stating, “I have a second’s license. I have everything. I mean I’m sure they still have a hair up their butts because I, uh, you know, called them on a few things and I’m not going to get into that but, uh, you know, they wanna test me, I’ll pass.”

Barnett maintained his innocence.

“I already passed when they wanted to bring up some bullshit trying to say I did whatever I did beforehand. I took a test a month after and I passed on things that aren’t supposed, that are supposed to be in your system for years. I come up clean again under Olympic training, Olympic standard testing. And I’ve already passed clean again.”

Alluding to extenuating circumstances but not getting into anything specific, Barnett declared “the reason things went the way they did for me had nothing to do with the issue at hand. It had something to do with a lot of other stuff and the commission itself.”

As for his association with the commission that suspended him in 2002, Barnett makes no bones about his apprehension in dealing with the regulatory body.

“I don’t really care if they, if I’m gonna fight and I have to work with them I’ll work with them. Honestly my relationship in concerns to that is no farther than whatever paperwork I gotta sign, whatever signatures I gotta get to give to get my checks, whatever cups I gotta pee in or whatever. Fine I do that but, you know, this is a business and I am a businessman. I just hope they can stay professional as well.”

The PRIDE heavyweight contender has been rumored to be among the participants scheduled to fight in Las Vegas on October 21, the Far East-promoter’s inaugural event on American soil.

“As long as I’m not injured expect to see me in Vegas, barring anything that is out of my control” he said.

Sunday night we will find out if Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) and possibly Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) or Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) are among the things outside of Barnett’s control.