As crazy as it may sound to haters like Uproxx’s Jessica Hudnall, Ryan Bader should be looking at a title shot right now. He’s won five straight in a weight class that is nearly impossible to do so in, he’s done so over increasingly impressive competition, and he’s looked more and more well-rounded with each performance. On the heels of a one-sided decision win over returning former champ Rashad Evans, it seemed as if Bader was all but guaranteed to be the man to face the winner of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier (which FYI, will be Jon Jones).
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the modern era of the UFC, it’s that Reebok Fight Kits are terrible. If there’s a second thing we’ve learned, it’s that title fights are *never* guaranteed. As such, Bader has once again been passed over and instead booked against his toughest opponent to date…
As crazy as it may sound to haters like Uproxx’s Jessica Hudnall, Ryan Bader should be looking at a title shot right now. He’s won five straight in a weight class that is nearly impossible to do so in, he’s done so over increasingly impressive competition, and he’s looked more and more well-rounded with each performance. On the heels of a one-sided decision win over returning former champ Rashad Evans, it seemed as if Bader was all but guaranteed to be the man to face the winner of Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier (which FYI, will be Jon Jones).
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the modern era of the UFC, it’s that Reebok Fight Kits are terrible. If there’s a second thing we’ve learned, it’s that title fights are *never* guaranteed. As such, Bader has once again been passed over and instead booked against his toughest opponent to date…
Last night’s edition of UFC Tonight broke the word that Bader will take on Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the main event of the UFC’s first FOX card of 2016, which goes down on January 30th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
After coming up short in his own title bid against Cormier, Johnson bounced back by bouncing Jimi Manuwa‘s head off the canvas repeatedly, scoring a second round knockout and a “Performance of the Night” bonus in the process. Aside from the loss to Cormier, Johnson has been undefeated in some 9 fights dating back to his last stint in the UFC.
If you’re wondering how Bader feels about what should be an unfortunate development for anyone who appreciates having brain cells, well, he’s taking it about as well as one can. (via Fox Sports)
It’s more palatable that it’s Jon Jones coming back and getting it than the whole (Alexander) Gustafsson situation coming off a knockout loss and all that.
For me, it looks like I’ve got to beat all these guys in the top five to get a shot. For me, having a big main event on FOX and fighting Anthony Johnson and he’s ranked No. 1 and that’s where we want to be. Obviously, I wanted to title shot but that’s not happening. The next best thing is this fight.
I’ll give Bader this much: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a fighter call a match with Rumble “the next best” option to *anything*, unless that next best thing was “wearing a Reebok Fight Kit.”
See, I had a plan for that joke all along!! How is it that I get paid so little to do this?!!
The past few weeks can’t have been all that easy for Anthony Johnson.
The feared UFC light heavyweight, who faces Jimi Manuwa on Saturday night at UFC 191, once again found himself in hot water on August 18 when he posted an ugly, misogynistic rant aga…
The past few weeks can’t have been all that easy for Anthony Johnson.
The feared UFC light heavyweight, who faces JimiManuwa on Saturday night at UFC 191, once again found himself in hot water on August 18 when he posted an ugly, misogynistic rant against an unnamed woman in his gym who’d had the temerity to stretch with her yoga mat where Johnson was trying to lift weights. Johnson threw her yoga mat, yelled at her a bit and then wrote a Facebook post saying that she was built “like a bag of dry dog food.”
The post spread like wildfire, which was to be expected. Johnson has a history of issues with domestic violence, including a 2009 incident that saw Johnson eventually sentenced to three years probation, community service and domestic violence counseling. A civil temporary restraining order was issued against Johnson in 2014, leading to his suspension from the UFC, but the organization reinstated him after the complaint was dismissed by the woman who filed it.
Johnson came out okay in this situation, too. Initially defiant on social media, Johnson apologized. The UFC announced an investigation, eventually expressing their disappointment in Johnson’s actions and noting that he would be undergoing counseling and making a donation to a Florida-based women’s charity, though no details on what kind of counseling or how big the donation would actually be were ever provided.
But even after all that, according to Johnson, he’s doing just fine. He’s not worried, not even a little bit. And, in fact, the recent hubbub was all a media creation, anyway.
“As long as my friends and family know who I am, I sleep well at night. I don’t worry about what the media has to say,” Johnson says during a UFC 191 media function Thursday. “I’m going to start answering like Marshawn Lynch. ‘You know why I’m here.’ They’re going to say what they want to say. I keep training. I keep fighting and stay focused.”
I tell Johnson that surely it must have been a little bit distracting, at least. But he shakes his head adamantly.
“Not even a little bit, man. Whenever I posted my ‘rant,’ as they called it, I took that upon myself to post it. I’m not afraid of the media because they’re going to say what they want to say, anyway,” he says.
“I didn’t attack anybody. All I did was throw a yoga mat and talk some trash,” he continues. “Who hasn’t thrown somebody’s stuff out of the way and talked trash? I’m just a public figure, and they want to make an example out of me. That’s fine with me. I’m not perfect. Show me somebody that hasn’t talked trash about somebody and put it on Facebook. It just happened to be me, and they want to say what they want to say. Like I said, I sleep well at night.”
Sleeping well at night is a thing Johnson keeps going back to, especially when asked how all of this has affected his mindset.
“I’m not worried about it. I sleep well at night. I have a nice comfy bed. I have awesome friends. I sleep well at night,” Johnson says. Again. “Yes, I was wrong for saying the things that I said. But I have already apologized, and everybody knows that. Life goes on. If people want to talk about it and whatnot, go right ahead. I still sleep well at night.”
I ask Johnson how long, in his estimation, did it take for someone from his management or the UFC offices to reach out to him and say, hey Anthony, perhaps this is not the best time to be posting rants against women on Facebook? Maybe?
Johnson says it was within one hour that his manager Glenn Robinson called him and told him to take the post down, but he was not inclined to agree with the suggestion.
“I’m like, Glenn, it’s already up. It’s already out there. You know how it is once you hit that send button, it’s out there. I’m like, Glenn, I’m not embarrassed by anything that I said,” Johnson says. “Do I regret it? No.
“It’s a lesson learned. But I am sorry. I felt bad for what I said. Nobody deserves to be talked about like that. Once again, I was mad. And that was it. So I apologized to her like a man, I admitted to her that I was wrong like a man. I kept living life like a man.”
Johnson says that he saw the woman two or three days after the incident started. He was in the gym, stretching (in the area where you are supposed to stretch, it must be noted by the author, so as not to have his yoga mat thrown across the room by an angry weightlifter), and when he came to the edge of the artificial turf area during his warm-up, he saw her standing there.
According to Johnson, he walked up, offered a handshake and said he was sorry.
“She said she was sorry, too. It was over with. She didn’t make a big stink about it. The media made a big stink about it,” he says. “She understood that when you’re mad, you say things. She accepted my apology, and I accepted hers.
“At the end of the day, we were both in the wrong. I was just dumb enough to put it on social media.”
***Late last night, former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson took to Twitter and Facebook to vent his frustrations regarding an “ugly woman at the gym” who was “stretching where people are supposed to lift.” It was an incredibly poor lapse in judgement for Johnson, who has a long and very public history with domestic violence, and he has wisely since deleted the posts. But in the hopes of curbing Johnson — or any other MMA fighters, really — from posting something incredibly stupid and/or defamatory on social media in the future, we’ve written the following open letter.***
***Late last night, former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson took to Twitter and Facebook to vent his frustrations regarding an “ugly woman at the gym” who was “stretching where people are supposed to lift.” It was an incredibly poor lapse in judgement for Johnson, who has a long and very public history with domestic violence, and he has wisely since deleted the posts. But in the hopes of curbing Johnson — or any other MMA fighters, really — from posting something incredibly stupid and/or defamatory on social media in the future, we’ve written the following open letter.***
Reviews are in for UFC 187, and they are nearly unanimous.
This was the best night of fights MMA fans have seen in a long, long time.
From Daniel Cormier’s winning the light heavyweight championship to Chris Weidman’s holding serve against Vitor Belfor…
Reviews are in for UFC 187, and they are nearly unanimous.
This was the best night of fights MMA fans have seen in a long, long time.
From Daniel Cormier‘s winning the light heavyweight championship to Chris Weidman‘s holding serve against VitorBelfort, the evening’s dueling main events put an exclamation point on that rare pay-per-view worth more than its $60 asking price. With stellar individual performances from supporting actors Donald Cerrone and Andrei Arlovski, the event’s three-hour main card rarely dragged.
To top it off, several of the bouts came preloaded with thought-provoking and relevant out-of-the-cage storylines.
There was Belfort‘s return after he took 18 months off to ditch his controversial testosterone replacement therapy regimen. There was Anthony Johnson’s vying for a title despite past domestic violence issues. There was the fact that Cormier and Johnson were only even fighting because Jon Jones had been stripped of the championship following an alleged hit-and-run accident.
There was—to put it mildly—a lot going on.
Unfortunately, if you didn’t already know about some of these important topics, you might have missed them completely on Saturday night. The official broadcast team certainly didn’t want to talk about them.
This is nothing new, obviously. Oftentimes, what UFC broadcasts don’t tell us is just as important as what they do. These aren’t regular sports telecasts, after all; they’re carefully planned corporate infomercials in which the messages are meticulously groomed and tightly controlled.
Bad news is so often swept to the side that if you’ve been watching UFC events for years, you probably don’t even notice anymore. You just innately understand that to get the whole story, you have to read between the lines. Or at least read a website.
Perhaps this weekend’s event only felt jarring because there was so much to ignore.
Play-by-play man Mike Goldberg and color commentator Joe Rogan did their normal duty, carrying the audience through an 11-fight card without once really engaging with arguably the three biggest stories of the night.
Belfort‘s fighting for the first time in three years without TRT? Ignored it.
Cormier and Johnson’s only meeting for the title because Jon Jones was recently given the boot? Well, they couldn’t completely ignore that one, but the UFC seemed to do its very best to keep it at arm’s length.
Just before the UFC 187 main event, producers aired a short video package highlighting the Jones situation, but nobody ever actually uttered the words “felony charges” or “hit and run.”
At least not out loud.
Instead, they noted we were about to crown a new titlist at 205 pounds for the first time since 2011. They spoke of Cormier’s recent loss to the champion and referred to Jones as being “on the sidelines” or “on hiatus.” Nobody mentioned the pregnant woman with a broken arm, the marijuana reportedly found in Jones’ vehicle or eyewitness accounts saying he ran away from the wreck before briefly dashing back to grab a large wad of cash.
Of anyone, Cormier came the closest to actually putting his finger on it. After he’d defeated Johnson by third-round submission, he seized the microphone from Rogan and declared: “Jon Jones, get your s–t together! I’m waiting for you!”
If you’d been paying attention to the UFC news cycle, no explanation of Cormier’s words was needed. If you hadn’t, none was offered.
Again, all this merely amounted to business as usual. The UFC’s announcers work for the fight company, so there has never been any expectation that they will say anything other than exactly what the UFC wants us to hear.
Perhaps fans don’t even want to be bothered with pesky details like what happened to the light heavyweight champion. Perhaps they don’t care why Belfort suddenly showed up on their TV screens looking like a three-day-old balloon. Maybe they just want to plunk down their money and spend a few worry-free hours watching the fights.
But for hardcore MMA fans, it was hard to ignore the fact that this version of UFC 187 only existed because of these storylines. Johnson and Cormier were only fighting for the title because the UFC told Jones he couldn’t. Weidman and Belfort were only there because three previous efforts to get them in the cage together had failed—twice due to injury, but once because Belfort was pulled out for drug-related reasons.
Largely pretending those narratives didn’t exist made the whole event seem like one big lie of omission.
You can almost cut the UFC some slack for not meeting Johnson’s legal issues head-on or for putting the Jones story on the backburner in order to focus on the two guys actually fighting that night. Neither of those stories directly affected what fans were seeing in the cage.
The drama surrounding Belfort, however, was a different thing entirely.
Clearly, after his long, well-publicized dalliance with TRT, the sudden absence of the controversial hormone treatments changed everything for The Phenom. He showed up at UFC 187 physically depleted, looking not at all like the muscle-bound beast who crafted three consecutive head-kick knockouts during 2013.
As the UFC broadcast team repeatedly marveled at his longevity—literally counting the days since Belfort’s UFC debut in 1997 and reminding us that recently he’d looked even more dangerous than in his 19-year-old salad days—it actually felt like they were mocking us.
“I can’t believe about 20 years ago, you and I were talking about VitorBelfort,” Goldberg said to open the main card. “We’re still doing it tonight.”
“There’s no one like him,” Rogan replied. “There’s no one from that era that is not only competitive today but fighting for the title in a really high-profile fight. VitorBelfort is coming off three of the most spectacular victories of his career 20 years into the game.”
All of this discussion went down without a hint of irony, of course.
Goldberg and Rogan never mentioned Belfort’s positive test for elevated levels of testosterone from February 2014. They never noted that 20 days after that failed test the Nevada State Athletic Commission suddenly banned TRTfrom competition.
They never pointed out the striking physical differences between the Belfort who showed up to fight Weidman and the dangerous maniac on the highlight reels, even as they aired them.
Had Belfort lost all that muscle mass as a result of an illness or some terrible accident—like the motorcycle wreck that knocked former heavyweight champion Frank Mir out of competition back in 2004, for example—it would have been a major topic of conversation. Yet on this night we were tacitly asked not to make an issue of Belfort’s stunning physical transformation.
They couldn’t stop people from thinking it, though. When the UFC posted the results of its “fan pick ’em poll” prior to the middleweight title fight, it revealed that 75 percent of spectators tabbed Weidman to win. Certainly, those numbers wouldn’t have been nearly as lopsided if anyone thought the “most spectacular” incarnation of Belfort was going to show up that night.
But we didn’t expect that guy, and he didn’t show. Weidman crushed Belfort by first-round TKO, and then we all moved on—another chapter of MMA history closed without so much as a wink and a nod.
And look: We know why the company does this. It’s trying to sell us stuff. It’s trying to pocket our money and keep us all coming back for more. UFC PPVs are more sales pitches than news reports. This is a reality we perfectly understand, even if it occasionally feels like a slap in the face to people who know what’s going on behind the scenes.
The weirdest part, maybe, is that we all know they’re doing it. We show up to a UFC event expecting a certain amount of spin. We know we’re getting the company’s perspective rather than the unadulterated truth. We’ve decided that we can put up with it because that’s the way things have always been and, really, what are we going to do about it?
You have to reimagine our sport’s entire history to dream up an MMA universe where fight promoters actually treat us like adults.
But that’s weird, right? It’s strange to know that and—what’s more—to be OK with it.
At this strange juncture in our sport, it seems fitting to wonder: What if the UFC just told us the truth? Would that really be so bad?
Would it really harm the product if it chose to take on Belfort’s TRT use in a responsible and realistic way? What if the UFC just came out and told us Belfort had opted to use a controversial medical treatment that not everyone approved of, one which the NSAC later decided couldn’t properly be policed? That he’d been very good while he was on the stuff, but now nobody was sure exactly what was going to happen to him?
As a fanbase, we could handle that…couldn’t we?
Would it change anyone’s mind about Belfort? Would it make more people cheer for Weidman? Would it make us all so disgusted that we switch off our TVs and leave MMA forever?
Doubt it.
The smart money says it wouldn’t matter much at all.
Even if it did make for some uncomfortable moments—life is complicated, you guys. Weird stuff happens, and you have to decide how you feel about it—but at least we wouldn’t have to pretend we didn’t notice.
Anthony “Rumble” Johnson has long been considered a flash in the pan. He’s a destroyer and virtually unstoppable when he’s the hammer.
But when adversity rears its ugly head, the oft-praised destroyer willingly accepts being the…
Anthony “Rumble” Johnson has long been considered a flash in the pan. He’s a destroyer and virtually unstoppable when he’s the hammer.
But when adversity rears its ugly head, the oft-praised destroyer willingly accepts being the nail.
Bloodied and battered, Johnson sat with his chin down to his chest after the second round of his light heavyweight title fight with Daniel Cormier on Saturday night. The highly anticipated main event tilt was set to crown a new UFC champion in the vacant spot left by Jon Jones.
After dropping Cormier with a punch early in the fight, Johnson looked breathless and stunned by the third round. “Don’t give up,” his corner desperately pleaded in between rounds. But it was too late. Johnson looked visibly broken after being out-grappled by the former Olympian.
I have often referred to Johnson as a reincarnated beast from his previous version. Since moving to light heavyweight, he has looked like a completely different fighter, effortlessly torching every opponent in his path.
The hype behind Johnson was built anew, and fans quickly forgot about the young welterweight struggling to overcome adversity in earlier fights.
Cormier alluded to Johnson’s past UFC bouts leading up to the fight during an episode of UFC Tonight:
I want to tell you guys right now, at the end of the day, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson is who he is. … Anthony’s the guy that got submitted by Josh Koscheck. Anthony’s the guy that tapped out before VitorBelfort had a choke in. At the core of him, he is who he is. I just have to go out and find that.
It’s hard to argue with Cormier, especially after seeing what happened on Saturday night.
Johnson’s recent run had been so dominant that fans never stopped to question the intangibles. Old habits die hard. Like he did against Belfort, Koscheck and Rich Clementi, Johnson rolled over in the face of adversity and gave up a rear-naked choke to Cormier.
Maybe it’s a mental hurdle. Perhaps it’s a physical one as well. For all the praise surrounding Johnson’s otherworldly power, you also have to accept the fact that he will never have elite conditioning. Being built like a superhero comes at a price, and Johnson paid dearly against Cormier.
Perhaps the biggest question mark was Johnson’s behavior at the post-fight press conference. He looked like the most content fighter ever to lose a championship, playfully joking along with Cormier.
No one is asking a grown man to cry, but not much was felt from Johnson after coming up short in the biggest moment of his professional career.
The class shown by Johnson is rare and appreciative. We could only hope to have more role models like him to inspire young fans all over the glove. But in the face of adversity and a championship loss, there was no emotion.
We saw Jones fight back and win a title bout after having his face carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey by Alexander Gustafsson. Cormier managed to find a way to win after getting knocked down on Saturday night. Where is that same grit from Johnson?
Win or lose, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson was going to leave UFC 187 on Saturday as a winner.
His admirable journey back to MMA prominence didn’t need to be validated by a UFC light heavyweight championship.
Sure, it would have splattered his growing …
Win or lose, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson was going to leave UFC 187 on Saturday as a winner.
His admirable journey back to MMA prominence didn’t need to be validated by a UFC light heavyweight championship.
Sure, it would have splattered his growing resume with a gigantic exclamation mark, but Johnson’s return to stardom is all anyone could wish for.
Well, Rumble didn’t win that aforementioned belt.
Instead, it was Daniel Cormier’s pressure-cooking wrestling, relentless conditioning and unheralded chin that reigned supreme at UFC 187.
Johnson ultimately gassed out on the heels of fending off a 205-pound version of Cain Velasquez, but he landed significant shots throughout the fight.
At just 31 years of age, the Blackzilian has plenty of potential moving forward.
Here are three fights for Johnson to take next as he tries to stay afloat a rather top-heavy weight class.
Winner of Glover Teixeira vs. Ovince Saint Preux
This matchup makes the most sense for Johnson at this time.
The only problem is that Glover Teixeira and Ovince Saint Preux aren’t scheduled to fight until early August at UFC Fight Night 73, which wouldn’t pin Rumble against the winner until the end of the year.
That’s too long for a guy like Johnson, who is probably eager to get back inside of the cage and reclaim his divisional stake.
But at the end of the day, taking some time off to adjust his conditioning and reestablish his submission defense could be exactly what he needs.
And considering he was just submitted by DC, Johnson would probably opt to fight OSP instead of a Brazilian with a second-degree black belt in jiu-jitsu.
Alexander Gustafsson
Johnson simply obliterated Alexander Gustafsson when the two first met at UFC on Fox 14 in January, winning by first-round TKO, but a rematch between the two would certainly suffice in a division desperate for elite matchups.
Despite the defeat to Rumble, Gustafsson still remains a top-5 threat at light heavyweight and a name that carries more weight than 99.9 percent of the division.
With that said, The Mauler must shake off a recent back injury in order to fight Johnson by summer’s end.
It would serve as a great co-main event for UFC 191 on Sept. 5.
Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson
If Johnson is looking to fight a light heavyweight capable and willing to stand toe-to-toe, he should look no further than Quinton Jackson.
Having capped off a successful return to the Octagon in April at UFC 186 opposite Fabio Maldonado, Rampage is eager to display his newfound patient striking against a top name.
At this point in their careers, Johnson most certainly possesses more punching power and an ability to turn it on and finish, but Jackson brings a certain amount of experience to the cage that simply can’t be measured.
There wouldn’t be much for Rumble to gain from such a matchup, but it remains an intriguing fight that would be an easy sell for the promotion.
The past few weeks can’t have been all that easy for Anthony Johnson.