White thinking about Johnson vs. Jones title eliminator
UFC boss thinking that Daniel Cormier title fight not next for Anthony Johnson after all
UFC president Dana White appeared recently on the UFC Unfiltered podcast with Matt Serra and Jim Norton, and discussed what’s next for top light heavyweight Anthony Johnson.
If you ever wondered what an MMA fight would look like if one fighter had a hammer in each hand, well, that’s Anthony Johnson. He knocked out Jimi Manuwa at 28 seconds of the second round, winning a performance bonuses.
But that took too long.
Next fight Johnson knocked out Ryan Bader at 86 seconds of the first round, winning a performance bonus.
But that took too long.
So on Saturday night, AJ knocked out the ultra durable Glover Teixeira in just 13 seconds, winning a third performance bonus in a row. Knocked a tooth out of his mouth, too, that looked like a home run.
Johnson called out Cormier from in the Octagon, and Cormier, cageside, agreed whole heartedly.
However, UFC interim champion Jon Jones, who failed a drug test, may have just failed a test for generic Cialis. If that is the case, he could be back soon. Neither fighter wants Jones next. Not Cormier, who declared I won’t fight Jon Jones. Not Johnson, who rumbled a crystral clear nope.
Never the less, White is thinking about giving Johnson a shot at the interim title first.
I’m in a weird place, said White, as transcribed by MMAjunkie. Duh, it’s MMA.
We saw that fight, and it was a great fight. I’ve still got to talk to Joe Silva and see what he thinks. But I’m thinking maybe we do Anthony Johnson vs. Jon Jones to see who gets to fight Daniel Cormier.
I haven’t talked to Jon, but the guy’s got 13 lives,. It’s looking good for him. I think he’s got to deal with Nevada right now and this thing that went down. I can’t say a lot about it because it’s not my place. We’ll see how this thing plays out, but it’s looking good for him.
White’s reasoning presumably centers on Johnson’s May 2015 loss to Cormier for the light heavyweight title vacated by Jones poor life choices. Still, Johnson vs. Cormier soon with the winner vs. a returning Jones seems like bigger fights than Johnson vs. Jones whenever that is, while Cormier waits, with the winner fighting DC.