Johnson open to fight at heavy as he waits for DC title shot

Anthony Johnson is Exhibit A in the case against weight cutting. Meeting him for the first time was one of my top 10 oddest moments in MMA – I am not small at 6′ 3″ 205 but was dwarfed by Johnson, who was then competing at welterweight.

To this day, I have no idea how he did it. None.

‘Rumble’ weighed in at 170 vs. Josh Koscheck at UFC 106, and lost. He won the next two, before moving up to middleweight where he missed weight and lost, vs. Vitor Belfort, and was fired.

Then he moved up to a more natural fighting weight of 205, even making a foray up to heavyweight, and went 9-0. He lost a title fight vs. Daniel Cormier, and then won three more, all by KO. In retrospect, it might have been fair to offer his opponents this year a motorcyle helmet.

Johnson was scheduled to challenge Cormier a second time for the title at UFC 206, but DC suffered a groin injury. He was then offered an interim title shot vs. Gegard Mousasi, but declined.

AJ explained his reasoning during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour.

“It didn’t interest me at all,” said Johnson, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “When Gegard was presented to me, it would’ve been a good fight, but it wouldn’t have done anything for me. Fighting him and becoming the interim champion, as much trash as I’ve talked and ‘DC’ has talked about interim titles being fake champions, if I would have beat him, it wouldn’t mean anything.”

“And if I had lost, I would have to start from scratch. It was just too risky.”

However, while Johnson is waiting for the title fight vs Cormier, he is open to taking a fight at heavyweight.

“I’ll fight heavyweight,” said Johnson, as transcribed by Damon Martin for FOX Sports. “If it’s a fun fight, I’d definitely try it out. I always said I was going to go up to heavyweight in the UFC before I retired anyways. I might as well try it out if I get the opportunity. There’s some good heavyweights out there. Those boys are big, so I’m definitely taking a big risk and a big chance fighting those guys. I look forward to the challenge.

“If I fight, it has to be at heavyweight because at 205, it’s just not worth it.”

Johnson’s last fight at heavyweight was back in 2013. He broke the jaw of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, winning a decision. So a rematch has a marketable backstory.

Throughout the drama, Johnson has remained positive. In a sport overflowing with trash talk, AJ is a beacon of class.

“I just see it as a blessing,” he said. “Things happen whenever they’re supposed to. I’m not stressing about it. I did train hard for this. I trained really hard for this. I was probably in the best shape I’ve been in a long time. I was in sick shape. I felt amazing.”

“Much love to DC. Not many fighters will call you and say ‘I apologize.’ DC was a real man and called me and apologized and then apologized on Twitter. I haven’t really been signed into Twitter and I haven’t been on social media much preparing for this fight, but when I signed into Twitter, I saw his message to me. That was mad respect from him to do that.”