Tag: Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones

After racking up three straight knockout wins over Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader, and Glover Teixeira since losing a title bid versus current champion Daniel Cormier in May 2015, top-ranked UFC light heavyweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will finally get another shot at “DC” in the main event of this Saturday’s (April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.

Arguably the most feared striker in all of mixed martial arts (MMA), the dominant “Rumble” has won 12 out of his last 13 bouts and boasts nine T/KO wins during the torrid stretch. However, he was thoroughly dominated by Cormier after the champion was able to survive an early punch to utilize his Olympic wrestling to smother Johnson and win the bout by submission in the third frame.

When Cormier locked in the fight-ending choke, Johnson’s famed striking coach Henri Hooft could be heard yelling, “Don’t give up” in the background, something Cormier said made him certain his biggest victory was almost at hand. But during a recent interview on ESPN’s “Five Rounds” Podcast with Brett Okamoto (via Bloody Elbow), the Dutch kickboxing specialist explained just what he meant when he repeated that phrase. Apparently, he meant it as more of a motivation to not give Cormier a position where he would be dominant:

“Some people say ‘you’re a great coach, but you cannot tell that to your students.’ That’s bulls—t!” Hooft explained. “Because every training, in a scramble when you give the back to somebody, we talk about this ‘don’t give up, scramble! scramble!’ Don’t give up position, and don’t just sit there and wait.’

“He’s going to be strong (in that position) and you’re going to be weaker, so that’s why we try to motivate them to don’t give up,” he said. “He got a little bit crazy in the first round, and he had to survive the second round just to get his second wind. Not ‘giving up’ was not saying he wants to quit in the fight, I don’t think AJ is like that. Otherwise he wouldn’t come up this far — but give up positions, where his opponent is getting stronger.”

Hooft refuted all who believe “Rumble” is a fighter who can be broken mentally, noting that Cormier, who only has a single loss to disgraced all-time great Jon Jones on his record, was the only fighter to beat him in his wildly successful UFC return:

“Probably people think they can break AJ, but it’s kinda funny. The only guy that beat AJ was DC, the rest, AJ knocked everybody out. They’re saying ‘he’s mentally weak, blah blah blah’ but you see what happens (to his opponents). A real fighter doesn’t quit in the fight in the sense of ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’, but they give up a position. That’s where it gets wrong, because you give the opponent confidence. That was more of the case of me trying to make him not give up position and to keep going.”

Finally, Hooft clarified his statement by pointing out that with all Johnson’s been through in his up-and-down MMA career, he simply wouldn’t be in the elite position he’s in right now if he was indeed a fighter who packed it in:

“It doesn’t mean quitting the fight. I don’t think a guy like AJ — what he went through with all these weight cuts, with all these problems and everything, he wouldn’t be fighting anymore if he quits.”

“Anthony is not somebody who quits. That’s not the case. Maybe it was just a little misunderstood. People get like crazy about it. C’mon man, be serious.”

The post Coach: Rumble Is Not Somebody Who Quits appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Top-ranked UFC light heavyweight Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will finally have another chance to defeat current champion Daniel Cormier when the two stars meet for a second time in the main event of next Saturday’s (April 8, 2017) UFC 210 from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.

On a torrid streak since May 2012 where he’s won 12 out of 13 bouts including nine by knockout, “Rumble” has quickly built a reputation as MMA’s most feared knockout hitter. But the only man who has been able to weather the storm since he stopped cutting down to absurd weight classes was Cormier, who utilized his world-class wrestling to wait out “Rumble’s” early power and submit the hulking behemoth in the third round of their first fight at 2015’s UFC 187.

Johnson has knocked out Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader, and Glover Teixeira since to earn his rematch with “DC,” and he recently said he’s a new kind of combatant during this week’s UFC 210 media call (via MMA Fighting):

“I’m definitely not the same fighter I was two years ago,” Johnson said. “Every day, every week, every month, every year I’m getting better and better, so you’ll see a different guy out there the next time you see me fight.

“[The loss] definitely lit a fire under my ass to train harder and know what I needed to do to beat this guy.”

Cormier recently insisted his opponent will only be dangerous in the “first seven minutes,” but “Rumble” nonchalantly refuted that notion, insisting Cormier and anyone can think that if they want to:

“The majority of the community believes I’m just a first-round fighter because most of my fights end in the first round,” Johnson said. “But they’re entitled to their own opinion, and that’s fine with me. I have nothing to prove to anybody but myself, so if [Cormier] wants to believe that and everybody else wants to believe that, that’s completely fine with me.”

Cormier then responded with some harsh yet clear words of his own, stating he doesn’t necessarily think Johnson will be anything different from the early-round knockout striker we’ve seen in the past:

“If it makes me a bad guy because I tell the truth, or the truth as I believe it, then I guess that’s what I am,” Cormier said. “I believe everything (I say). I’m not lying. I don’t lie about anything. All I do is state the truth. If people don’t like the truth, then that’s on them. I’m not sitting here making stuff up. I’m not over here pretending. I’m over here stating facts. And if me telling the facts makes me the bad guy, then okay.

“[But] when we talk about him being a completely different fighter, I don’t necessarily know what you guys are basing this on,” Cormier continued. “He beat Jimi Manuwa and he took him down, but of course he’s going to take Jimi Manuwa down. He’s a wrestler. Jimi Manuwa can’t wrestle. Then you’re talking about him and Ryan Bader. If I would’ve shot on Anthony from across the Octagon, he would’ve done the same thing to me. He fought for a total of seven minutes since him and I fought, but he’s this completely different fighter? I have no idea where you guys are getting this from.”

Johnson remained steadfast in his quest, however, describing his ultimate goal of being champion “an obsession”:

“Getting the belt would definitely put everything in place for me,” Johnson said. “And mentally, it’s like an obsession.”

As the only two clear top light heavyweights in the UFC outside of dominant but troubled former champion Jon Jones, Cormier and Johnson know each others’ games, and they probably also know what the other one is going to say by now.

The talk will be over soon, and Cormier will look to make his first title defense since 2015 against the man he initially won the belt against. The 38-year-old AKA superstar believes “Rumble” will be dangerous early, and indeed he’s felt that storied power before early in the first fight.

But it’s “Rumble” who’s been active in knocking out three Top 5-ranked contenders without breaking a sweat while “DC” was on the sidelines with multiple ailments. Will it be “Rumble” who’s the different fighter in the rematch, or has Cormier lost a step himself?

The post Rumble: Loss To Daniel Cormier ‘Lit A Fire Under My A**’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.