Josh Barnett stars alongside Steven Seagal in straight-to-DVD flick

Wondering why Josh Barnett hasn't fought in almost a year? This is one of the reasons.

"The Warmaster" stars alongside Steven Seagal in a straight-to-DVD action movie called "Absolution." It's hard to tell exactly what is going on in the flick from viewing the trailer, but it seems as if Seagal and Barnett are on opposite sides of things. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the UFC heavyweight chokes Seagal out in any of the scenes.

We haven't seen Barnett, 36, in the Octagon since last December in a loss to Travis Browne and that makes us sad. He did compete at Metamoris in August, submitting Dean Lister in an awesome grappling match, but it isn't the same.

There are plenty of interesting heavyweight fights out there for him, especially against guys also starring in awful, should have been straight-to-the-cutting-room floor movies recently like Roy Nelson and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, who are both in "Scorpion King 4."

Barnett apparently plays a clean-cut corporate bad guy in "Absolution" (we think, we really have no clue) opposite Seagal's over-the-hill, round-bellied, bad ass anti-hero. Or whatever. So that means no beard, which is terribly unfortunate.

We need Barnett and his beard back in the UFC stat. Things just aren't as interesting without him.