Former UFC welterweight and recent WSOF heavyweight winner, Anthony Johnson, has come out in support of his fight camp, Blackzilians, after scoring a unanimous decision win over the bigger and more experienced Andrei Arlovski at the WSOF 2 event at Revel Atlantic City in New Jersey on Saturday.
His comments came amid news that one of the Blackzilians’ keystone members, Melvin Guillard, has deserted the camp for his old team at Jackson’s MMA. Guillard’s departure follows a series of losses for the Blackzilians as well as the prior departure of Antonio Silva who left earlier in the year, complaining that there was “no love in the team”.
“Every team has losses,” Johnson told reporters at WSOF 2 (h/t MMAjunkie.com). “Losses don’t define who you are… People always want to talk about the losses, not the wins. Everybody talks about Rashad’s loss. Everybody talks about Alistair’s loss. But Vitor Belfort is one of my training partners. He just high-kicked Michael Bisping (for a knockout win). You all talked about that for five minutes. You’re all still talking about the losses we had. What about the wins we had?”
The Blackzilians, who train at the Jaco Hybrid Training Center in Florida, was founded by Rashad Evans following his acrimonious departure from Jackson’s MMA in 2011. During that time, the former light heavyweight champion was able to pull together a host of talented fighters, including former Jackson’s teammate Guillard and former UFC champion Vitor Belfort.
The depth of talent led to initial successes for the team, with 2012 being a standout year for it. Blackzilian fighters like Guillard, Michael Johnson, Rashad Evans, Eddie Alvarez, Siyar Bahadurzada, Braulio Estima, Tyrone Sprong and Antonio Silva all recorded wins that year. However, the wheels have started to come off during 2013.
Team figurehead Evans was defeated by Antonio “Little Nog” Nogueira, Alistair Overeem was knocked out by former Blackzilian Silva and Guillard tasted defeat at the hands of Jamie Varner all in the space of three months. The situation has led to criticisms of the team led by UFC president Dana White himself.
But Johnson is having none of it. And, in fact, his victory over Arlovski was just one of many the Blackzilians tasted during WSOF 2.
Although Gesias Cavalcante suffered a TKO loss due to a cut, both Johnson and Danillo Villefort won their matches and Johnson said his team is a big reason he was able to defeat Arlovski, a former UFC champion. Arlovski was on a four-fight winning streak until his defeat to Johnson – a man who now usually fights a weight class below him.
Still, with the departure of Guillard and Silva’s acrimonious split, the Blackzilians have work to do to rebuild their reputation. That could be left in the hands of Evans himself, who is expected to face Dan Henderson on June 15, 2013 at UFC 161.
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