The 15-hour flight overseas won’t seem so bad on the return trip for James Vick. The 28-year old fighter went to Australia to fight the local kid Jake Matthews, and not only kept his record perfect in scoring a first-round guillotine choke, …
The 15-hour flight overseas won’t seem so bad on the return trip for James Vick. The 28-year old fighter went to Australia to fight the local kid Jake Matthews, and not only kept his record perfect in scoring a first-round guillotine choke, but he also took home some extra pocket cash.
Vick earned a $50,000 performance of the night bonus for his quick work of Matthews. With the win, the Lloyd Irvin student is now 8-0 (4-0 in the UFC).
Chambers, who hails from New South Wales, scored a come-from-behind victory over Kailin Curran during the card’s prelims. After losing her official UFC debut against Aisling Daly during The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale in December, Chambers was able to persevere until the third round, in which she submitted Curran via armbar.
Meanwhile Whittaker had his most impressive performance in the Octagon, scoring a quick knockout victory over Brad Tavares in the co-main event. The fight lasted just 44 seconds, but the 24-year old Whittaker made a statement that he was a force to be reckoned with as a middleweight. He defeated Clint Hester in his middleweight debut in Sydney, Australia, back in November.
New Zealand’s Hooker scored a second round knockout of the Japanese fighter, Hatsu Hioki, which gives him a 2-1 record in the UFC.
Though it’s rare at the top levels, Brandon Halsey‘s one of those fighters to win a title before fully making a name for himself. Yet his 35-second submission finish of Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 126 — after winning the Season 10 middleweight tournament very quietly under the old Bellator structure — was enough to raise a few eyebrows.
How far can the former collegiate wrestler at Cal State Bakersfield go in this sport? Into the history books, to hear him tell it.
“I want to leave a mark — it’s not just about fighting, it’s leaving a mark on MMA,” he told MMA Fighting. “[It’s about] people looking back on history and saying, ‘that guy kind of changed the sport, he evolved it to a different level.’ I kind of want to leave my mark on MMA and obviously be the best in the world.”
In his first title defense at Bellator 137, Halsey will face UFC veteran Kendall Grove, who won The Ultimate Fighter 5. That fight will take place on May 15 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif., not far from where Halsey grew up in San Diego. He expects there to be over 100 of his friends in family in the crowd as he tries to run his record to 9-0.
Yet even though he only began competing in MMA in 2012, Halsey has the attitude of a fighter on the cusp of becoming something great. In talking to him, he uses the word “evolution” a lot to describe himself in both the present and future tense. Cocky? Well, it’s a fine line between that and confidence, but he doesn’t mind ruffling a few feathers along the way.
Check out Kendall Grove’s attitude towards Halsey heading into the fight. In a recent interview, Grove made some strong statements about Halsey, calling him a “piece of sh*t and accusing him of using PEDs. There’s also a burbling feud between him and Tito Ortiz going on, which he’d rather wait to unfold until they are booked to fight one another.
“Obviously [Tito]’s a name and he’s been in this sport a long time,” he said. “I think it would just be fun to mash his face. Does he get under my skin? No, nobody really gets under my skin, but that’s just a fighter I’d like to beat up.”
As for Grove, Halsey looks at him as an obstacle to be gotten through — somebody to be taken seriously, but not overly worry about.
“I never look past anybody, but there is a bigger picture,” he said. “He is a UFC veteran, he’s a seasoned guy, but like I said, I’m a new evolution of fighting in MMA. I don’t see anything that Kendall Grove poses as a threat. I’m just going to run through him. He just happens to be the next guy in my way.”
So far, it’s hard to knock the 28-year-old Halsey’s work in the cage. At a perfect 8-0 — including finishes in three of his last four bouts — Halsey’s transition from wrestling to cagefighting has been a smooth one. Yet he looked particularly good against Shlemenko on the night he won the belt.
In that fight, he shot in and scored a takedown, immediately took Shlemenko back, snatched his neck, and moments later dumped the Russian from his arms unconscious. It was a big performance in a big spot, and yet Halsey wasn’t overly sold on it.
“Obviously getting a victory and finishing somebody that quick is a good feeling, but I’m always looking for room to improve,” he said. “I’m trying to become one of the best fighters in the world. This sport is evolving, and I’m one of those fighters…I feel like a new evolution of fighter in this sport where it’s just not your normal tough guy or bartender turned fighter. This is what I do for a living. This is my job.”
Asked if he felt like he needed to defend the belt to truly feel like a champion, Halsey said that stuff just doesn’t cross his mind.
“I try not to think about that,” he said. “I do have the belt, but it’s one thing at a time. I just want to be the best fighter, and I want to fight the best guys. I want Bellator to challenge me and bring in some new fighters. Yes, Kendall Grove is a seasoned veteran, but I want to challenge myself.”
Though it’s rare at the top levels, Brandon Halsey‘s one of those fighters to win a title before fully making a name for himself. Yet his 35-second submission finish of Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 126 — after winning the Season 10 middleweight tournament very quietly under the old Bellator structure — was enough to raise a few eyebrows.
How far can the former collegiate wrestler at Cal State Bakersfield go in this sport? Into the history books, to hear him tell it.
“I want to leave a mark — it’s not just about fighting, it’s leaving a mark on MMA,” he told MMA Fighting. “[It’s about] people looking back on history and saying, ‘that guy kind of changed the sport, he evolved it to a different level.’ I kind of want to leave my mark on MMA and obviously be the best in the world.”
In his first title defense at Bellator 137, Halsey will face UFC veteran Kendall Grove, who won The Ultimate Fighter 5. That fight will take place on May 15 at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif., not far from where Halsey grew up in San Diego. He expects there to be over 100 of his friends in family in the crowd as he tries to run his record to 9-0.
Yet even though he only began competing in MMA in 2012, Halsey has the attitude of a fighter on the cusp of becoming something great. In talking to him, he uses the word “evolution” a lot to describe himself in both the present and future tense. Cocky? Well, it’s a fine line between that and confidence, but he doesn’t mind ruffling a few feathers along the way.
Check out Kendall Grove’s attitude towards Halsey heading into the fight. In a recent interview, Grove made some strong statements about Halsey, calling him a “piece of sh*t and accusing him of using PEDs. There’s also a burbling feud between him and Tito Ortiz going on, which he’d rather wait to unfold until they are booked to fight one another.
“Obviously [Tito]’s a name and he’s been in this sport a long time,” he said. “I think it would just be fun to mash his face. Does he get under my skin? No, nobody really gets under my skin, but that’s just a fighter I’d like to beat up.”
As for Grove, Halsey looks at him as an obstacle to be gotten through — somebody to be taken seriously, but not overly worry about.
“I never look past anybody, but there is a bigger picture,” he said. “He is a UFC veteran, he’s a seasoned guy, but like I said, I’m a new evolution of fighting in MMA. I don’t see anything that Kendall Grove poses as a threat. I’m just going to run through him. He just happens to be the next guy in my way.”
So far, it’s hard to knock the 28-year-old Halsey’s work in the cage. At a perfect 8-0 — including finishes in three of his last four bouts — Halsey’s transition from wrestling to cagefighting has been a smooth one. Yet he looked particularly good against Shlemenko on the night he won the belt.
In that fight, he shot in and scored a takedown, immediately took Shlemenko back, snatched his neck, and moments later dumped the Russian from his arms unconscious. It was a big performance in a big spot, and yet Halsey wasn’t overly sold on it.
“Obviously getting a victory and finishing somebody that quick is a good feeling, but I’m always looking for room to improve,” he said. “I’m trying to become one of the best fighters in the world. This sport is evolving, and I’m one of those fighters…I feel like a new evolution of fighter in this sport where it’s just not your normal tough guy or bartender turned fighter. This is what I do for a living. This is my job.”
Asked if he felt like he needed to defend the belt to truly feel like a champion, Halsey said that stuff just doesn’t cross his mind.
“I try not to think about that,” he said. “I do have the belt, but it’s one thing at a time. I just want to be the best fighter, and I want to fight the best guys. I want Bellator to challenge me and bring in some new fighters. Yes, Kendall Grove is a seasoned veteran, but I want to challenge myself.”
With the UFC having grown almost exclusively out of modern technology, the idea of a physical Hall of Fame feels oddly traditionalist — especially one with a structured set of guidelines for which to gain entry. This is a sport that stayed alive on Internet boards during its darkest times, that commandeered social media like Twitter, that contemplated moats in the beginning and yet still has its share of “Cyborgs” running around. Now we’re talking about an actual location to go to see the bloody trunks worn by Stephan Bonnar from his famous fight with Forrest Griffin?
That feels a little 1955.
But when the UFC announced on Tuesday that it would open a physical Hall of Fame the idea just made sense. There needs to be a hallowed place to walk through the sport’s history. With the UFC always working in prospect of upcoming events, it could use a sanctuary for which to look backwards, if only to gauge how far we’ve come. After all, the UFC went through the Nine Circles of Hell just so you and I can complain about Stipe Miocic versus Mark Hunt as a main event in Adelaide.
What I’m trying to say is material makes it all real. Exhibits are snapshots in time. Don Frye’s mustache never gets old. The UFC is doing a cool thing.
Not that I have any real idea how the new UFC HOF will look in the end, or if it will exclude certain pioneering types like Frank Shamrock just because he’s Frank Shamrock, or if UFC-less legends like Fedor Emelianenko will find a way in, or if there will be yellow jackets or even Dennis Hallman’s Speedo, but there is something about acknowledgement that goes a long way. In this sport, perhaps more than any other, people come to bad ends. They limp away. They slur. They diminish and lose their skills very publicly. There’s a cruelty to the fight game that goes into its ultimate beauty. People come and go. They mostly go.
Yet the best of them should be enshrined in a cathedral, just like in other sports. People do a lot of crazy things to be remembered, and that’s what a HOF is meant to do — evoke a memory, a place in time, the way things were. You know…provide context, the thing sorely needed in MMA. And really, this sport has had two lives. The old days when “Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves” was the vibe, and the scrubbed-up new era of sanctioning, when “legitimacy” became a word, and “sport” began to transcend “spectacle.”
That only a decade separates those eras makes for an intimate experience.
That’s why the idea of having “Wings” feels very forward-thinking for a promotion that sometimes figures things out on the fly. The UFC plans to honor the whole lineage, with a Modern Era Wing (which has a list of presidential-like requisites, such as a minimum age of entry of 35 years old), a Pioneers Era Wing (I imagine a picture of Kimo Leopoldo with a button to push, which plays Stemm’s timeless anthem “Face The Pain”), a Contributor’s Wing (at some point, whose son wouldn’t want to behold Arianny Celeste’s white tennies encased in glass?), and a Fight Wing.
The last one is meant to commemorate the most meaningful, seminal and holy sh*t fights on record. Nothing wrong with that. There have been many over the years to choose from.
There are delicate factors — for instance, how will known steroid users will be treated? — but however the new UFC HOF shapes up, it’s a cool gesture to the people who have made this sport what it is. If it’s anything like the Hall of Fames in other sports, it’ll give a sense of how far the sport has come in such a short time. And this sport’s come an awful long way. To the point that if you really concentrate on the Pioneer’s Wing, circa 1993-1999, the very idea of standing in a Hall of Fame dedicated to it might come off as a little hard to believe.
With the UFC having grown almost exclusively out of modern technology, the idea of a physical Hall of Fame feels oddly traditionalist — especially one with a structured set of guidelines for which to gain entry. This is a sport that stayed alive on Internet boards during its darkest times, that commandeered social media like Twitter, that contemplated moats in the beginning and yet still has its share of “Cyborgs” running around. Now we’re talking about an actual location to go to see the bloody trunks worn by Stephan Bonnar from his famous fight with Forrest Griffin?
That feels a little 1955.
But when the UFC announced on Tuesday that it would open a physical Hall of Fame the idea just made sense. There needs to be a hallowed place to walk through the sport’s history. With the UFC always working in prospect of upcoming events, it could use a sanctuary for which to look backwards, if only to gauge how far we’ve come. After all, the UFC went through the Nine Circles of Hell just so you and I can complain about Stipe Miocic versus Mark Hunt as a main event in Adelaide.
What I’m trying to say is material makes it all real. Exhibits are snapshots in time. Don Frye’s mustache never gets old. The UFC is doing a cool thing.
Not that I have any real idea how the new UFC HOF will look in the end, or if it will exclude certain pioneering types like Frank Shamrock just because he’s Frank Shamrock, or if UFC-less legends like Fedor Emelianenko will find a way in, or if there will be yellow jackets or even Dennis Hallman’s Speedo, but there is something about acknowledgement that goes a long way. In this sport, perhaps more than any other, people come to bad ends. They limp away. They slur. They diminish and lose their skills very publicly. There’s a cruelty to the fight game that goes into its ultimate beauty. People come and go. They mostly go.
Yet the best of them should be enshrined in a cathedral, just like in other sports. People do a lot of crazy things to be remembered, and that’s what a HOF is meant to do — evoke a memory, a place in time, the way things were. You know…provide context, the thing sorely needed in MMA. And really, this sport has had two lives. The old days when “Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves” was the vibe, and the scrubbed-up new era of sanctioning, when “legitimacy” became a word, and “sport” began to transcend “spectacle.”
That only a decade separates those eras makes for an intimate experience.
That’s why the idea of having “Wings” feels very forward-thinking for a promotion that sometimes figures things out on the fly. The UFC plans to honor the whole lineage, with a Modern Era Wing (which has a list of presidential-like requisites, such as a minimum age of entry of 35 years old), a Pioneers Era Wing (I imagine a picture of Kimo Leopoldo with a button to push, which plays Stemm’s timeless anthem “Face The Pain”), a Contributor’s Wing (at some point, whose son wouldn’t want to behold Arianny Celeste’s white tennies encased in glass?), and a Fight Wing.
The last one is meant to commemorate the most meaningful, seminal and holy sh*t fights on record. Nothing wrong with that. There have been many over the years to choose from.
There are delicate factors — for instance, how will known steroid users will be treated? — but however the new UFC HOF shapes up, it’s a cool gesture to the people who have made this sport what it is. If it’s anything like the Hall of Fames in other sports, it’ll give a sense of how far the sport has come in such a short time. And this sport’s come an awful long way. To the point that if you really concentrate on the Pioneer’s Wing, circa 1993-1999, the very idea of standing in a Hall of Fame dedicated to it might come off as a little hard to believe.
With the UFC light heavyweight title fight for UFC 187 now between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson, the odd man out is Ryan Bader. Bader was booked to fight Cormier at UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans on June 6, but when Jon Jones was suspended indefinitely and stripped of the belt for a felony hit-and-run in New Mexico, he found himself without a fight.
Now that Cormier has been chosen to stand in for Jones against Johnson for the 205-pound title, Bader is training for an invisible foe.
“This whole past week I’ve been training hard,” Bader told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on Monday’s MMA Hour. “I’m continuing to do what I was. I’m in the middle of camp right now. I was to fight Daniel Cormier, and now I have no clue. So this whole I’ve just been doing the same stuff, but not knowing what kind of opponent I’m training for, or if I’m training for an opponent, and who. Like I said earlier, do we fight just to get a paycheck and move on? Or, ultimately, do we want to be where DC is right now and fighting for that title. So we want the next shot.”
Bader is riding a four-fight winning streak, which stems back to a 2013 decision against Anthony Perosh. In his last outing he was able to score a split decision victory over Phil Davis in Stockholm, Sweden. All four of his victories have come via decision.
His fight with Cormier was a main event for the UFC’s return to New Orleans, and was thought to have at least loose title connotations. Bader said on Monday that he hopes that the shift in the division might mean that he can wait out the winner of the Johnson-Cormier fight.
Which was in itself a consolation prize. Bader said that when he heard the whisperings that Jones might be out of the fight that his camp began lobbying for the May 23 fight with Johnson.
“You know, my manager and all that were calling [UFC president] Dana [White] and all that kind of stuff, and we definitely wanted that fight,” he said. “I heard rumors early Sunday morning, and the first thing that popped in my mind was, I need to jump in there and fight Anthony Johnson. Se we were pushing for that and pushing for that.”
In the end the UFC went with Cormier, who lost to Jones at UFC 182 on Jan. 3 via unanimous decision. Bader said he understood why the decision was made, but still felt he should have been given the nod to fight for the belt.
“I get that the business decision as far as putting Daniel Cormier in,” he said. “He just fought Jon Jones. He has the platform to sell the fight with all the stuff on FOX, and all that. The next best thing for us is to get that winner. Like I said, a four-fight win streak right now and nobody else is qualified for that title shot. They’ve all had their chances, and they’ve all lost. Pretty much all of them are coming off of losing streaks. I get that decision to put DC in, but we should be next.
If the UFC opts not to have Bader wait, the fight that seeming made some sense was a rematch with Glover Teixeira. Bader’s last loss came against Teixeira at UFC Fight Night 28 in Brazil, a fight he was controlling up until the moment he got caught. Bader ended up losing via first-round TKO.
Still, since that time Bader has peeled off four wins in a row while Teixeira is currently riding a two-fight losing streak. Though he said the UFC has yet to formally offer him that fight he does have some reservations about taking it if it means a step backwards.
“It all depends,” he said. “We’re interested in fighting for that title. Glover’s on a two fight losing streak and, like I said, he just lost to Phil Davis, and what the 205-pound division is in need of is contenders. If you’re going to knock one of us off…I plan on going out there and beating him if I’m fighting Glover, then he’s on a three-fight [losing] streak. So what happens with him down the road? I know he’s one of the top guys. And then you have [Alexander] Gustafsson just had a KO loss to maybe eventual champion and we were supposed to fight him…you know our hat was in there for that Sweden card. We offered to fight him in the main event, and AJ got that fight.
“We’ve always taken every single fight that was offered. We step up and fight the top names that nobody wants to fight. So if I hear people saying, ‘oh, you’re ducking this or ducking that,’ no I haven’t ducked anybody. I’ve had three fights that were supposed to be with the top three guys and for whatever reason, whether it was them or the UFC, they got pulled. We’ll see what happens.”
Still, Bader said the goal is to fight for a title, not to just take fights. If he has his druthers he will just wait a few weeks to see what happens at UFC 187.
“I’m in this sport to win a championship,” he said. “And so, if we can go to the UFC, and talk to Joe Silva or Dana and say hey, we get the winner, then I’m going to fight the winner of AJ and DC. That’s a best-case scenario. We’ll see in the next couple of days what else, what else happens…if Glover’s still on the table or not.”
In the meantime, Bader said he’ll stay busy training for a fight in the event something comes up.
“I don’t want to get a call if something makes sense and then I was ten pounds heavier and out of shape and not preparing right,” he said. “And so I’m doing the same stuff I was doing. Nothing’s changed. We’re just waiting for that phone call, and we hope to know today, tomorrow, soon. That’s kind of where we’re at. We’re in this No Man’s Land right now and trying to figure it out.”
With the UFC light heavyweight title fight for UFC 187 now between Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson, the odd man out is Ryan Bader. Bader was booked to fight Cormier at UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans on June 6, but when Jon Jones was suspended indefinitely and stripped of the belt for a felony hit-and-run in New Mexico, he found himself without a fight.
Now that Cormier has been chosen to stand in for Jones against Johnson for the 205-pound title, Bader is training for an invisible foe.
“This whole past week I’ve been training hard,” Bader told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on Monday’s MMA Hour. “I’m continuing to do what I was. I’m in the middle of camp right now. I was to fight Daniel Cormier, and now I have no clue. So this whole I’ve just been doing the same stuff, but not knowing what kind of opponent I’m training for, or if I’m training for an opponent, and who. Like I said earlier, do we fight just to get a paycheck and move on? Or, ultimately, do we want to be where DC is right now and fighting for that title. So we want the next shot.”
Bader is riding a four-fight winning streak, which stems back to a 2013 decision against Anthony Perosh. In his last outing he was able to score a split decision victory over Phil Davis in Stockholm, Sweden. All four of his victories have come via decision.
His fight with Cormier was a main event for the UFC’s return to New Orleans, and was thought to have at least loose title connotations. Bader said on Monday that he hopes that the shift in the division might mean that he can wait out the winner of the Johnson-Cormier fight.
Which was in itself a consolation prize. Bader said that when he heard the whisperings that Jones might be out of the fight that his camp began lobbying for the May 23 fight with Johnson.
“You know, my manager and all that were calling [UFC president] Dana [White] and all that kind of stuff, and we definitely wanted that fight,” he said. “I heard rumors early Sunday morning, and the first thing that popped in my mind was, I need to jump in there and fight Anthony Johnson. Se we were pushing for that and pushing for that.”
In the end the UFC went with Cormier, who lost to Jones at UFC 182 on Jan. 3 via unanimous decision. Bader said he understood why the decision was made, but still felt he should have been given the nod to fight for the belt.
“I get that the business decision as far as putting Daniel Cormier in,” he said. “He just fought Jon Jones. He has the platform to sell the fight with all the stuff on FOX, and all that. The next best thing for us is to get that winner. Like I said, a four-fight win streak right now and nobody else is qualified for that title shot. They’ve all had their chances, and they’ve all lost. Pretty much all of them are coming off of losing streaks. I get that decision to put DC in, but we should be next.
If the UFC opts not to have Bader wait, the fight that seeming made some sense was a rematch with Glover Teixeira. Bader’s last loss came against Teixeira at UFC Fight Night 28 in Brazil, a fight he was controlling up until the moment he got caught. Bader ended up losing via first-round TKO.
Still, since that time Bader has peeled off four wins in a row while Teixeira is currently riding a two-fight losing streak. Though he said the UFC has yet to formally offer him that fight he does have some reservations about taking it if it means a step backwards.
“It all depends,” he said. “We’re interested in fighting for that title. Glover’s on a two fight losing streak and, like I said, he just lost to Phil Davis, and what the 205-pound division is in need of is contenders. If you’re going to knock one of us off…I plan on going out there and beating him if I’m fighting Glover, then he’s on a three-fight [losing] streak. So what happens with him down the road? I know he’s one of the top guys. And then you have [Alexander] Gustafsson just had a KO loss to maybe eventual champion and we were supposed to fight him…you know our hat was in there for that Sweden card. We offered to fight him in the main event, and AJ got that fight.
“We’ve always taken every single fight that was offered. We step up and fight the top names that nobody wants to fight. So if I hear people saying, ‘oh, you’re ducking this or ducking that,’ no I haven’t ducked anybody. I’ve had three fights that were supposed to be with the top three guys and for whatever reason, whether it was them or the UFC, they got pulled. We’ll see what happens.”
Still, Bader said the goal is to fight for a title, not to just take fights. If he has his druthers he will just wait a few weeks to see what happens at UFC 187.
“I’m in this sport to win a championship,” he said. “And so, if we can go to the UFC, and talk to Joe Silva or Dana and say hey, we get the winner, then I’m going to fight the winner of AJ and DC. That’s a best-case scenario. We’ll see in the next couple of days what else, what else happens…if Glover’s still on the table or not.”
In the meantime, Bader said he’ll stay busy training for a fight in the event something comes up.
“I don’t want to get a call if something makes sense and then I was ten pounds heavier and out of shape and not preparing right,” he said. “And so I’m doing the same stuff I was doing. Nothing’s changed. We’re just waiting for that phone call, and we hope to know today, tomorrow, soon. That’s kind of where we’re at. We’re in this No Man’s Land right now and trying to figure it out.”
In the fallout of UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones being stripped of his title last week, the new realities for everybody else are setting in. Namely, that Anthony Johnson — who was to challenge Jones at UFC 187 on May 23 – is now facing Daniel Cormier, who is getting a title shot mulligan after losing to Jones at UFC 182 in January.
With Jones now out indefinitely has he deals in legal matters and gets his life back on track after last week’s hit-and-run incident, the reconfiguration of the 205-pound division is underway. Contenders like Ryan Bader, who was supposed to face Cormier in New Orleans on June 6, is now in a spot where he could conceivably wait out the winner of Cormier-Johnson.
And “Rumble” Johnson, who was being faced with the challenge of upending Jones’ streak of eight straight title defenses, now fights for a vacant belt that doesn’t belong to anybody.
Not that he’s placing any less import on what that belt represents should he win it in Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend.
“I’ll feel like I’m the champ if I beat [Cormier],” Johnson told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I worked my ass off to get where I am. It’s not my fault — it’s not anybody’s fault — with what happened to Jon. Jon did that to himself, everybody knows that. But life goes on, and you’ve got to keep it moving. When he comes back, if I still have the title, and it’s my time to fight him I’ll fight him. But one day, I know we’ll eventually fight.”
The 31-year old Johnson has resurrected his career that began as a UFC welterweight to look like a viable threat to Jones. Since being cut by the UFC after failing to make weight on several occasions, Johnson — who trains with the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Florida — has found a home at 205 pounds. He has won nine straight fights, including a victory over Phil Davis on his return to the promotion at UFC 172, and another against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 14 in Sweden.
The last one, which he finished in just 2:15 of the first round via TKO, propelled him towards Jones. That was set up to be one of the biggest fights of 2015 until the incident with Jones in Albuquerque. Yet even with the UFC taking the bold step of stripping Jones of his title and suspending him indefinitely, Johnson said he would have done the same thing if he were in charge.
“I think it’s the right call,” he said. “If it was my business I wouldn’t want that to be…I wouldn’t want somebody who did anything like that to be the face of my company. You’re not representing the company the right way doing that type of stuff. And nobody’s perfect, everybody makes mistakes.
“But regardless, if that was my company, if this was his first time doing something like that, I probably would have did just what they did right after that. It’s just something that doesn’t look good towards the fans, and it doesn’t look good on his family. It’s a tough road. It’s very hard to get over something like that.”
Johnson knows a little bit about it, having faced disciplinary action from the UFC stemming from a domestic violence incident with the mother of his two children. Two months after being suspended indefinitely, upon the dismissal of the civil case, Jones was reinstated by the UFC in November 2014 to set up his No. 1 contender’s clash with Gustafsson.
Johnson says that he sympathizes a little bit with Jones, which he demonstrated on Twitter by sending the longtime champion a nice message. It’s not just Jones that Johnson was thinking of. It was all the people who are associated with Jones.
“I felt bad for a lot of people,” Johnson said on the show. “I felt bad for his family…I felt bad for the UFC…I felt bad for the fans. Because the UFC lost a great champion, you know, and the fans didn’t get to see the fight that they wanted to see yet. His family had to deal with this stuff. Not just Jon, but his overall family and his team and stuff. It’s just tough. It’s a tough road.
“It is what it is. I hope he gets better. Best of luck to him, honestly.”
Now set to face Cormier, who has a more telegraphed style as an aggressive wrestler, Johnson said he is more than up for the challenge. When asked if he took offense to some of the initial jawing taking place — in which Cormier said that Johnson was essentially the same fighter he’s always been – Johnson said things like that don’t get to him.
“No, it doesn’t bother me, [Cormier] can think what he wants,” he said. “I’m still going to be who I am. I’m nowhere to close to the guy I used to be, nowhere close to the fighter I used to be. So, a lot of people still think that I am that same fighter that I used to be when I fought at 170, but I’m a different kind of animal right now.”
In the fallout of UFC light heavyweight Jon Jones being stripped of his title last week, the new realities for everybody else are setting in. Namely, that Anthony Johnson — who was to challenge Jones at UFC 187 on May 23 – is now facing Daniel Cormier, who is getting a title shot mulligan after losing to Jones at UFC 182 in January.
With Jones now out indefinitely has he deals in legal matters and gets his life back on track after last week’s hit-and-run incident, the reconfiguration of the 205-pound division is underway. Contenders like Ryan Bader, who was supposed to face Cormier in New Orleans on June 6, is now in a spot where he could conceivably wait out the winner of Cormier-Johnson.
And “Rumble” Johnson, who was being faced with the challenge of upending Jones’ streak of eight straight title defenses, now fights for a vacant belt that doesn’t belong to anybody.
Not that he’s placing any less import on what that belt represents should he win it in Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend.
“I’ll feel like I’m the champ if I beat [Cormier],” Johnson told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I worked my ass off to get where I am. It’s not my fault — it’s not anybody’s fault — with what happened to Jon. Jon did that to himself, everybody knows that. But life goes on, and you’ve got to keep it moving. When he comes back, if I still have the title, and it’s my time to fight him I’ll fight him. But one day, I know we’ll eventually fight.”
The 31-year old Johnson has resurrected his career that began as a UFC welterweight to look like a viable threat to Jones. Since being cut by the UFC after failing to make weight on several occasions, Johnson — who trains with the Blackzilians in Boca Raton, Florida — has found a home at 205 pounds. He has won nine straight fights, including a victory over Phil Davis on his return to the promotion at UFC 172, and another against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 14 in Sweden.
The last one, which he finished in just 2:15 of the first round via TKO, propelled him towards Jones. That was set up to be one of the biggest fights of 2015 until the incident with Jones in Albuquerque. Yet even with the UFC taking the bold step of stripping Jones of his title and suspending him indefinitely, Johnson said he would have done the same thing if he were in charge.
“I think it’s the right call,” he said. “If it was my business I wouldn’t want that to be…I wouldn’t want somebody who did anything like that to be the face of my company. You’re not representing the company the right way doing that type of stuff. And nobody’s perfect, everybody makes mistakes.
“But regardless, if that was my company, if this was his first time doing something like that, I probably would have did just what they did right after that. It’s just something that doesn’t look good towards the fans, and it doesn’t look good on his family. It’s a tough road. It’s very hard to get over something like that.”
Johnson knows a little bit about it, having faced disciplinary action from the UFC stemming from a domestic violence incident with the mother of his two children. Two months after being suspended indefinitely, upon the dismissal of the civil case, Jones was reinstated by the UFC in November 2014 to set up his No. 1 contender’s clash with Gustafsson.
Johnson says that he sympathizes a little bit with Jones, which he demonstrated on Twitter by sending the longtime champion a nice message. It’s not just Jones that Johnson was thinking of. It was all the people who are associated with Jones.
“I felt bad for a lot of people,” Johnson said on the show. “I felt bad for his family…I felt bad for the UFC…I felt bad for the fans. Because the UFC lost a great champion, you know, and the fans didn’t get to see the fight that they wanted to see yet. His family had to deal with this stuff. Not just Jon, but his overall family and his team and stuff. It’s just tough. It’s a tough road.
“It is what it is. I hope he gets better. Best of luck to him, honestly.”
Now set to face Cormier, who has a more telegraphed style as an aggressive wrestler, Johnson said he is more than up for the challenge. When asked if he took offense to some of the initial jawing taking place — in which Cormier said that Johnson was essentially the same fighter he’s always been – Johnson said things like that don’t get to him.
“No, it doesn’t bother me, [Cormier] can think what he wants,” he said. “I’m still going to be who I am. I’m nowhere to close to the guy I used to be, nowhere close to the fighter I used to be. So, a lot of people still think that I am that same fighter that I used to be when I fought at 170, but I’m a different kind of animal right now.”
Though she’s not yet in the UFC, Cristiane Justino is definitely on the UFC radar. And several years after her and women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey simultaneously held gold in Strikeforce, “Cyborg” is finally nearing her first trip…
Though she’s not yet in the UFC, Cristiane Justino is definitely on the UFC radar. And several years after her and women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey simultaneously held gold in Strikeforce, “Cyborg” is finally nearing her first trip to the Octagon.
On Friday night, the current Invicta FC featherweight champion Justino appeared on UFC Tonight and talked about all the things in her future, including the much-anticipated date with current 135-pound champion Rousey.
“I signed a UFC deal, but it will be with Invicta,” she told host Kenny Florian and guest analyst Michael Bisping. “And my next fight is at 145. But you know I’m excited. I want to make my fight at 135 one day.”
Justino has had trouble getting down to 135 pounds for the last year, but is still flirting with the idea of whittled down her frame for a potential super-clash with Rousey. Asked why she was confident this time around might be different than her previous attempts to get down in weight, Justino pointed to her nutritionist.
“You know, now I have a professional nutrition guy, and his name’s George Lockhart, and he’s helped me,” she said. “He’s helping me now make 145 easier. He’s followed my work now, and I’ll try 100 percent to make this fight happen.”
Since Rousey won the inaugural women’s bantamweight UFC title in 2013 at UFC 157 there has been an outcry to see her and “Cyborg” square off. The problem is that Rousey doesn’t feel the need to fight Justino at any other weight than bantamweight. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta has said that the UFC is looking at bringing Justino in, so long as she proves she can make 135 pounds. Right now that hasn’t been proven.
Still, despite the divisional and promotional divides, many people regard a potential Cyborg-Rousey fight to the biggest fight in women’s MMA history. One of those who see it that is is Justino herself, though for her the idea of a catchweight still holds a more immediate appeal.
“When [Rousey] was fighting at Strikeforce before, I wanted to fight her too,” Justino said. “And I think she really wanted this fight, before she wanted this fight. But you know, I try 100 percent to make 135 so I can make the fight everybody wants to see. You know, it’s annoying. I hear everyday, ‘Ronda Rousey, Ronda Rousey'”
Asked what her goals where going forward, the 29-year old Brazilian fighter said the next step is making it the UFC…and eventually finding her way to Rousey, after the champion defends her belt against Bethe Correira at UFC 190.
“You know I think all fighters want to be in the UFC one day,” she said. “I think everybody wants to be there, and of course one day I want to be the champion. But I think for now, I think it would be great for everybody to watch me and Ronda Rousey. I think it would be a great fight. I think it’s more important. I have the belt already. I don’t want her belt, just to make the fight happen.”‘
Given the opportunity to send a message to Rousey while on the show, Justino (13-1-1) still suggested a catchweight bout to give the fans what they want to see.
“Let’s go fight. Let’s go meet at 140,” she said. “You can have this fight for my fans and your fans and make a great fight for women’s MMA.”
