UFC Fight Night returns to Stockholm, Sweden on January 24 with Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson set to clash with local favourite and #1 ranked light-heavyweight contender, Alexander ‘The Mauler’ Gustafsson, in the main event of UFC on Fox 14.
Currently ranked #5 in the UFC’s 205lb light-heavyweight division, Anthony Johnson (18-4) has established himself as one of the promotion’s most fearsome power strikers, and has dramatically reinvented himself after being cut from the roster in 2012.
A series of failed weight cuts from 2007-2012 frustrated UFC officials as Johnson aimed to compete in the smaller welterweight and middleweight divisions, attempting to cut as much as 40lbs. The final straw came in 2012 when Johnson weighed in 11lbs over the 186lb middleweight limit at UFC 142, and subsequently lost via submission to Vitor Belfort in the opening round after failing to maintain his cardio. Johnson was released from the UFC shortly after.
“It was hell,” Johnson told MMAPlus. “It sucked. Dropping 40lbs is not a good thing, naturally and physically I’m not made to drop that type of weight. I was doing it; sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn’t, but it hurt me every single time I attempted to make 170lbs.”
Johnson went on to regain prominence outside of the UFC with a 6-fight win streak featuring four knockouts, and victories in the World Series of Fighting over the likes of Mike Kyle, and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. It appeared that Johnson was now comfortable at 205lbs, having ditched the far more strenuous strenuous weight cuts.
As a new and improved threat in the light-heavyweight landscape, Johnson was called back to the UFC in April of 2014, and out performed #6 ranked Phil Davis to earn a unanimous decision victory at UFC 172. Furthermore, Johnson continued the impressive form, and two months later he knocked out hardy Brazilian veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in just 44 seconds.
Johnson now finds himself headlining a standout UFC on Fox card in front an anticipated 40,000 fans at Stockholm’s Tele 2 Arena. The winner of Gustafsson vs. Johnson will go on to face Jon Jones for the UFC light-heavyweight championship, but even Johnson admits that he never saw it coming following his release from the company in 2012.
“I had no idea that I would be in the situation that I’m in right now,” he told MMAPlus. “The book is already written, I’m just in it. I just go with the flow of whatever’s happening.”
