Since 2007, Anthony Johnson has been fighting for the UFC. In that time, it has been nothing but a roller coaster ride for him. He has been sidelined due to knee injury, as well as lost a fight after being poked in the eye. That being said, he has still put together a 6-3 record inside the octagon, and has a chance to put himself “in the mix” Saturday night, that is if he defeats Charlie Brenneman.
Anthony Johnson is a great fighter, but at welterweight is he truly hype or bite?
The biggest concern most people have with Anthony is his size. He is the biggest welterweight in the division, and truly should fight at middleweight and honestly could make light heavyweight. He has had his troubles with his weight, and with the middleweight division being partially slim, sooner or later he may not have a choice but to fight there.
Johnson has had hype behind him since he made his debut, and his KO victory over Tommy Speer really put him in the spotlight.
He had bad luck against Kevin Burns, but got his redemption a few months later in the rematch where he won by KO in the third round. He then went on to defeat Luigi Fioravanti and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, which meant three wins in a row for him, and he was now in the contender picture, and the hype had never been so high for him.
His fight with Koscheck didn’t go as planned. Koscheck was the faster fighter, with the better wrestling. In the end, it ended with Koscheck scoring the rear naked choke victory.
After the loss, Johnson was expected to face John Howard, but was forced off the card due to a knee injury.
Johnson was out for over a year due to the knee injury, but returned to face Dan Hardy at UFC Fight Night 24 last March. During his time off with the injury, things were quiet with Johnson, and besides some Twitter beef with John Howard many just really wrote him off.
In his return, he dominated Hardy with his wrestling. It was obvious that the weight cut took its toll on him, because he was slower than normal during the fight. He took the unanimous decision victory, but left many questions in the eyes of the fans.
Like stated before, Johnson is a good fighter, but he is in the wrong weight class. When a fighter must lose 55 pounds to make a fight, that right there shows that not only are you in the wrong weight division, but also that he has heart, because that is a very tough task to complete.
At the moment, sadly Johnson is more hype than bite, but this Saturday night he has a chance to prove all of the critics wrong and place himself one step closer to a title shot.
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