Anthony Johnson: Fans can love or hate me, W is all that matters
Anthony Johnson recently spoke with Pittburgh’s 93.7 The Fan about his headlining fight vs. Nate Marquardt at UFC on Versus…
Anthony Johnson recently spoke with Pittburgh’s 93.7 The Fan about his headlining fight vs. Nate Marquardt at UFC on Versus 4 on June 26, 2011, at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA.
“Going in there and fighting a guy that has the same amount of respect for me as I do for him, it’s fun because you just let it all out. Nate’s dangerous, he’s really dangerous. He’s great. He’s a really good competitor. He just added more firepower to the welterweight division. That’s what we needed. The welterweight division was already stacked. In my opinion, anybody can hold that title so you’ve got to mind your P’s and Q’s whenever you fight.”
“That’s the difference. This is MMA. If they want a kickboxing match, they can watch K-1. I’m a mixed martial artist. I’m gonna do what I gotta do to win. The fans are gonna to love you or hate you but as long as you keep getting that W, that’s all that matters. Do I plan on standing? I don’t know, man. We’ll see how it turns out. It depends on the situation. I’m gonna still go out there and do my best. If I have to stand up, I’ll stand up. If I have to take him to the ground, I’ll do that. I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
“I kinda just stumbled across (MMA). In college some guys started paying attention to it and started doing some submission wrestling. We were just wrestlers. We were amateurs, we didn’t know anything. I thought I knew a rear naked choke but I was doing it wrong, backwards. Just getting into this sport, my neighbor kept asking me to come to his dad’s gym and I was like ‘man, y’all don’t know anything’ because the college and the town I went to is so small, Susanville, California is so small it’s like a hick-town. You’ve got to be a cowboy or a correctional officer to live there if you’re not a college athlete. He kept asking me to come to his dad’s gym and I finally went. My girlfriend at the time was like ‘dude, you’ve got to get out of the house and do something’ and before that she said, ‘go check it out, if you like it stick with it and if you don’t, don’t go back’ and now I’m here talking to you. I fell in love with it.”
“Do I want to be a legend? Only time will tell. I just wanna be that guy who goes out there and gives it all. I want GSP and Chuck Liddell money … It’s competition, it’s what we do for a living. We’re supposed to be ready for things like this, to fight on the main event. To me, if I’m on the undercard or the main event, I’m gonna go out there and fight with all I got. No matter what. It doesn’t matter who it is, I’m gonna give it all I can.”