Four years ago, Anthony Johnson walked away from fighting after his second UFC light heavyweight championship defeat at the hands of Daniel Cormier. And for a while, he was perfectly content.
“I needed to have a break from being a professional athlete for a change,” Johnson told The Post via Zoom this week. “… I just needed a chance to be myself, clear my head, clear my body and mind.”
But as he watched Cormier’s trilogy of heavyweight title fights with Stipe Miocic the past three years, he got the itch again.
And while Johnson says he was “fat and happy” as he originally planned to return to fighting at heavyweight, he will instead feature in the fourth and final bout of the Bellator World Light Heavyweight Grand Prix on Friday night as the co-headliner for Bellator 258 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Even those plans were tweaked recently, as he now faces Jose Augusto instead of original opponent Yoel Romero on the Showtime-aired event.
Johnson (22-6, 16 finishes) says the time away allowed him to be in a better place mentally as he returns to the cage, fighting in Bellator for the first time.
“My circle got smaller. I got smarter. I’ve just got my life under control now,” says Johnson, 37. “And it’s still not peaches and cream, but nobody’s life is perfect. But I’m not where I used to be. I’m in a much better place. I’m just happier, and that’s all that matters to me.”
The man known as “Rumble” says he’s “pretty private about outside-of-the-cage stuff” and opted against detailing what was holding him back beyond fighting. He also declined to discuss the subject of a 2019 battery/domestic battery charge in Boca Raton, Fla., and subsequent pretrial diversion agreement that required Johnson to complete an anger management course to dismiss the case.
Instead, Johnson is focused on his fighting future. Known throughout his career for his punching and kicking power that led to five wins by 60-second-or-less (T)KO in the UFC over an MMA career that began in 2006, his original matchup against former UFC middleweight title challenger Romero was the crown jewel of the opening stage of Bellator’s tournament. But then Romero was removed due to what Bellator said was a failure to “clear pre-fight medical testing,” leaving Johnson disappointed with the missed opportunity.
Anthony Johnson at UFC 210 against Daniel Cormier Zuffa LLC via Getty Images“I was training for it. I was ready. Still ready,” Johnson said with regret. “… But Yoel’s in the past, man. I’m more focused on Jose.”
This isn’t the first time a highly anticipated fight involving Johnson failed to come together. For years, he looked to be perhaps the toughest challenge longtime UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones had yet to face. A fight between the two was targeted for May 2015, but Jones was involved in a hit-and-run incident. The champ was suspended and stripped of his crown. Johnson faced Cormier for the vacant title and Rumble fell via third-round submission in the first of two meetings.
The Jones fight not materializing remains disappointing to this day for Johnson, who has accepted “it’s not gonna happen” with the two now signed to different organizations.
“I didn’t want to go down in history as one of those fights that should have happened,” Johnson said. “… Not fighting Jon was a disappointment, and it was a heartbreaker for me. But life goes on.”
Johnson also doesn’t want to be remembered as a fighter who never got over the hump and won a world title, and he said he’s perfectly content if that happens with Bellator instead of the UFC. A win over Augusto would advance him to the semifinals against champion Vadim Nemkov and get him tantalizingly close to that goal.
“I know I’m supposed to win a world title,” Johnson said. “I know I am. I feel it. But I also know I’ve gotta go through those battles to get there.”
Johnson swears he hasn’t even considered Nemkov yet, not with 29-year-old Augusto (7-2, seven finishes) in front of him. His new opponent from Brazil is coming off an arm-triangle submission victory last month with Bellator, but he’s also the least-heralded of the remaining tournament field.
With few expecting anything other than a Johnson knockout of a prospect, the favorite acknowledges Augusto is essentially playing with house money. And Johnson certainly didn’t have enough time to make many changes to his preparation given Romero was removed just eight days before the event.
“He has nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Johnson said.
