Mixed martial arts is a world of peculiar characters with interesting background stories. Anthony Johnson is one of those individuals. As he prepares for the biggest bout of his career, against Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC on Fox 14, his story will approach yet another turning point, in a career that contains many of them. Come Saturday night, the fight community will know whether “Rumble” has successfully turned his career around from when he needed it the most.
Let’s take a trip with our time machine back to 2012 when the UFC couldn’t have been happier to cut Anthony Johnson from its ranks. At that point in time he was nearly five years into his Octagon career. During that period he had put together a 7-4 record, but he missed the welterweight limit three times. The final straw came when he weighed in at 197 bouts for a middleweight fight against Vitor Belfort at UFC 142. The cards were stacked perfectly for the promotion to cut Johnson after that loss. Jettisoned from the UFC, he was expected to flounder in “minor” promotions throughout the sport, but the exact opposite happened.
Over the next two years, Johnson would put together a six-fight winning streak. The most interesting part of that run, however, was Johnson taking the reverse course of action than is standard in MMA. Usually when fighters struggle they make an attempt to flourish in a lighter weight class. Lorenz Larkin recently did so at UFC Fight Night 59, where he made a successful welterweight debut, knocking out John Howard. Frankie Edgar, Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen, Lyoto Machida, and many others have also moved down a weight class after they began to struggle on the division where they first made their names. Johnson bucked that trend, and did so in a major way.
Since leaving the UFC, Johnson has been successful at both light heavyweight and heavyweight. His return to the Octagon has seen him disrupt the 205-pound division in such a way that he is one win away from challenging the current champion, Jon Jones.
Johnson’s success flies in the face of the weight-cutting practices that have translated from wrestling to mixed martial arts. Fighters such as Gleison Tibau have been known to cut nearly 40 pounds in preparation for their fights.
In a piece by ESPN‘s Brett Okamoto, Johnson admitted that he “knocked on death’s door” with his continued cuts down to 171 pounds. Luckily, he realized that even middleweight was out of the question.
“If anybody brings up 186 pounds to me, I look at them cross-eyed,” Johnson said. “Honestly, I start feeling sick when I get to 204 pounds. My body won’t allow it. It’s most likely a mental thing but I don’t even want to think about it.”
Johnson’s health issues prevented him from making weight in his bout against Belfort, but instead of that moment being considered a failure, it very well could be the moment that saved Johnson’s life.
Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow expressed similar sentiments when he wrote about Johnson’s initial cut from the organization:
“The best move to score some points with the UFC may be to be very public in saying that he needs to fight at 205 and go out and have some success doing so on the regional scene. Or, even if he wants to stay at middleweight, he has to make the cut with ease repeatedly and prove that he can do it. I truly believe we’d see him have better success if he stops wrecking his body with crazy weight cuts.”
On nearly every fight card there seems to be a new story of another fighter struggling to make weight. Henry Cejudo and John Lineker are two recent examples, but that list grows with each showing. Hopefully, Johnson will not be among that group ever again.
Other fighters could benefit from taking the lesson that “Rumble” learned to heart. Fringe fighters who see themselves on the cusp of losing a roster spot should no longer put themselves through the ridiculous strain of drastic weight-cutting. The health impact of such continued abuse has not been fully recognized at this point, and there certainly isn’t an individual who wants to become the first casualty.
MMA is still in its infantile stages compared to other sports. And Anthony Johnson’s emergence as a contender to the light heavyweight title deserves attention not only for his dynamic finishes, but due to him facing the fact that his weight-cutting efforts were doing nothing more than shortening his professional career. If other fighters follow suit, Johnson’s story will be more than that of a career resurgence, but of a trailblazer for long-term career health.
• Alexander Gustafsson vs. Anthony Johnson
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UFC on Fox 14: Gustafsson vs. Johnson is due to take place on January 24, 2015 at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
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