All Strikeforce ‘Barnett vs. Kharitonov’ Drug Screens Negative

All Strikeforce “Barnett vs. Kharitonov” drug screens have come back clean, Sherdog.com confirmed with Ohio Athletic Commission Executive Director Bernie Profato on Friday. Eight fighters were tested in total, and all eight tests came back negative for both performance enhancing drugs and drugs of abuse.

Featuring the semifinals of Strikeforce’s ongoing heavyweight grand prix, the event went down Sept. 10 from U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.

Among those tested were main event competitors Josh Barnett and Sergei Kharitonov, as well as fellow heavyweight grand prix competitors Daniel Cormier and Antonio Silva. Additionally, new middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and former titleholder Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza were both cleared, as were Mike Kyle and Yoel Romero Palacio.

Barnett and Cormier dominated their competition en route to berths in the final. “The Warmaster” quickly dispatched his Russian foe in the main event, taking down Kharitonov with a trip and securing an arm-triangle choke not long after. Just prior, Cormier used a sharp boxing attack to bludgeon the much larger “Bigfoot,” knocking down the massive Brazilian with a perfectly placed uppercut and finishing him with hammer strikes.