Anthony Johnson talks about fighting Cormier again, the Blackzilians and more
“Rumble, young man, Rumble”. Anthony Johnson finally received a shot at UFC gold in his last fight, but unfortunately, ‘Rumble’ couldn’t go the distance, as Daniel Cormier grinded Anthony on the mat, and the former Olympian finally managed to put Anthony Johnson away via submission.
Anthony is now looking to get back in the mix, and his next hurdle is Jimi Manuwa at UFC 191.
While Anthony has his sights firmly set on capturing the UFC Light Heavyweight title, he isn’t looking past Manuwa. Although he was recently involved in an unfortunate altercation, Johnson is focused for his upcoming fight, and with the possibility of once again fighting Daniel Cormier for the title, Rumble knows that the uphill task to get back into title contention begins this weekend.
But before Anthony and Manuwa get inside the Octagon on September 5th, I had the opportunity to catch up with Anthony Johnson for an interview, exclusively for the Indian MMA fans.
The recent gym incident, and changes in his camp
When asked about the recent gym incident, and if he was 100% ready mentally for his upcoming fight, Johnson said, “Yes, I’m focused for the fight. I wouldn’t have taken the fight if I wasn’t focused. The incident from the gym is over with, and that was never a distraction for me.”
Talking about the changes in his training camp leading to his upcoming fight, Johnson shed some light on a new addition to his team. “Yeah, I made some adjustments. I added Neil Melanson to my training, who is one of my coaches, and he helped me out tremendously. I still have my wrestling coach, Greg Jones, I still have my jiu-jitsu coach, Jorge Santiago, and I still have my striking coach, Henri Hooft. Nothing’s changed; I added oomph to my crew, to make me a better fighter.”
Anthony was also on a 9 fight win streak before he faced Daniel Cormier for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight title. Dwelling on what went wrong, Anthony said, “I mean, everything went wrong. I wasn’t as focused as I should’ve been. I made so many mistakes during that fight, and Daniel capitalized on those mistakes.
“That’s what you do when you have the chance, you know what I mean? He showed that he’s a true champion, and I look forward to going out there and competing again, and hopefully fight Daniel again, you know? Even if he has the belt or even if he doesn’t have the belt; I just want to be able to go against the best of the best, and I’ll take my chances with anybody,” said Rumble.
Rumble predicts the winner of Cormier – Gustafsson
While talking about getting back into contention, Anthony briefly discussed about the UFC 192 main event fight between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, and surprisingly, picked the Swede to walk out with the UFC Light Heavyweight title.
“I’ll pick Gustafsson out of the two, because of the two, I feel like Gustafsson has more tools. Daniel isn’t a chump; I’m not looking past Cormier and think Gustafsson will win, you know? I think it will be one hell of a fight, and I look forward to… actually I’ll be there. I got to keep my eye on the competition, you know? And I want to be up close and personal for a fight like that.” says Anthony.
You can catch UFC 191 on September 6th, at 7:30 AM live on Sony SIX and Sony KIX. The card will also feature a title bout between Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson, along with a heavyweight clash between former champions Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski. In case you missed our interview with Paige VanZant, you can see it here.