(Note to Anthony: ‘Super Hulk’ isn’t a real weight-division.)
Anthony “Rumble” Johnson has gone from being awesome and stringing together some great knockout wins in the UFC, to washing out because of his inability to make weight. He missed weight three times in the UFC, most epically in his last bout against Vitor Belfort, and now it appears he’s done it again. MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta has the details:
“Another fight, another weight issue for Anthony Johnson. A Friday night bout that will mark his first since his UFC release has been reset at a 195-pound catch weight despite numerous previous announcements it would be contested at 185.
The Titan Fighting 22 bout was originally advertised as a middleweight bout, but on Thursday’s edition of Bloody Elbow Radio, promoter Joe Kelly said that Johnson and opponent Dave Branch had signed catch weight contracts instead. Johnson weighed in at 194.2 while Branch was 189.2.
It appears though, that the change was quite recent. A press release distributed as recently as May 7 trumpeted the fight at 185, headlined ‘Top Middleweights Battle at Titan Fighting 22.’ In addition, in a recent interview, Branch made it clear that the bout was agreed to at 185. Finally, a feature produced by ‘Inside MMA’ just this week confirms the fight was scheduled at middleweight,” Chiappatta writes.
Goodness gracious, Rumble. We take no pleasure in kind of predicting this. The kid is not doing himself justice. We’ve made jokes in the past about his puffy face in the off-season, but this clearly isn’t a case of Tim Sylvia-style bloating. Johnson just seems to be an example of MMA’s obsession with weight-cutting gone wrong. Johnson was a welterweight who used to sweat off up to 44 pounds to compete, then wisely decided to shift to middleweight. But instead of treating the new division as an opportunity to not destroy his body in the sauna, he packed on an Overeem-size portion of extra muscle and began the unhealthy weight-cutting process all over again. Too bad his body has stopped cooperating.
Someone is giving Johnson bad advice about how much muscle he can gain in between bouts, and he needs to stop listening to them before he ruins his career, or worse. Or, he can start competing as a light-heavyweight where he wouldn’t have to cut much weight at all. Honestly, it’s not like he’d be undersized for the division.
