When a smiling Anthony Johnson tipped the scales at an unapologetic 197 pounds, many observers were shocked at how someone coming up from welterweight could possibly miss weight by so much jumping up in weight class.
Really though, all the signs were there, and it didn’t surprise me one bit. In fact, only hours before I’d been talking to my friend about the possibility that something like this might happen.
How a Former 170 Pound Fighter Weighed In at 197 Pounds
A quick glance at Anthony Johnson’s welterweight record should show you that he’s no stranger to missing weight. That said, even when he missed the 170 pound limit, he’d weigh in at 177.5 pounds, or 176 pounds, still nowhere near the 197 pounds he weighed in at yesterday.
Yet if you heard Johnson speak beforehand, you might just have gotten a little hint that it might happen.
Prior to failing to make weight, Johnson had spoken about how much fresher and stronger he would be with an extra 15 pounds.
He’d spoken about how much happier he was now that he didn’t have to watch what he ate.
But when you think about it, that doesn’t make any sense.
Having already weighed in at as much as 177.5 and 176 pounds before a fight, already looking sucked out, Johnson wouldn’t be 15 pounds heavier at 186 pounds, he’d be 10 pounds heavier at maximum.
And adding 10 pounds isn’t very hard to do at all for a guy who can weigh in at at over 220 pounds when he’s not training for a fight.
For some of you out there, none of this will make any sense, but let me explain it in a different way.
Think of a man with a $10,000 debt who wins the lottery. Surely with $10 million that same man couldn’t possibly go broke, right? Wrong. Lottery winners go broke all the time, because the issue is never about $10,000, it was always an issue about money management in general. If you can’t save money when you’ve got none of it, imagine how you’re going to do when you’ve got more than you can count.
Or, think of the procrastinating student who gets a two-week extension on his assignment and says, “Thank God the pressure is off, who wants to go drinking tonight?” He’s never going to get that assignment done on time.
The only problem with the case of Johnson is that it’s a little bit more complex because Johnson was a HUGE welterweight who would have had time making 170 even in the best of times. But he wasn’t just a huge welterweight, he was a huge welterweight who gained weight just by looking at a sandwich, and a huge welterweight who never thought he had a problem even though he’d missed weight massively twice before.
In fact, he still doesn’t think he has one. He’s responded to this whole situation by laughing at the criticisms, and brushing it off as some kind of unprecedented medical issue.
Congratulations Anthony, you’ve now joined Cris Cyborg and BJ Penn in the “delusional MMA fighters who can’t admit it when they’re wrong” club.
Somehow I doubt that this incident will change anything in Johnson’s mind. Maybe he wouldn’t have problems making 205 pounds.
The final question is what will Dana White do about this?
In the past, White has been lenient with Chris Leben, a two-time convicted DUI who has tested positive for steroids and banned painkillers.
In my mind, driving under the influence is a million times worse than missing weight.
But will White see Johnson like he sees Leben, as a man with inner demons, or like Josh Barnett, a man who is trying to mess with his bottom line?
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com