Anthony Johnson: Rumble Version 2.0

New gym, new team, new fighter

Anthony Johnson has a salty side. He can get irritated, especially when hit with the same questions, over and over. You can see it in his eyes, read it on his face.

It’s unmistakable.

He got that way at the post-fight press conference following his victory over Dan Hardy in March, when the majority of the questions from the assembled media alternated between his previous weight-cutting issues and the unexpected game plan he used to earn a unanimous decision over the former title contender. Known for his knockout power and ferocious striking, “Rumble” wrestled his way to victory, and it caught everyone off guard, most of all Hardy.

He also has a very personable and charismatic side as well.

“What was I supposed to do, give everybody my game plan? Just hand it to him, let him know what I was going to do with that fight?” asked Johnson, a booming laugh filling the air following the rhetorical question.

“I don’t give a shit what anybody has to say about how I fight, because at the end of the day, they’re either going to watch me or they aren’t. They’re either going to love me or they’re going to hate me, so I’m going to continue to be me. If I say I’m going to punch you in the eye, I might not punch you in the eye; I might kick you in your leg, you know what I mean? I’m going to always do the unexpected.”

It’s not as if Johnson was the first fighter to express one strategy publicly while planning another behind closed doors. That’s the chess game fighters play before each fight, and Johnson knows it all too well, having fallen victim to it himself in his bout with Josh Koscheck.

Throughout the weeks leading up to their meeting at UFC 106, the talkative TUF 1 alum repeated the same refrain: he was going to stand with the Johnson, beat the striker at his own game. When the fight began, Koscheck wrestled Johnson to the ground, and kept him there throughout the first round, before submitting him with a rear naked choke in the second.

“I took that from him. I learned a lesson from the Koscheck fight. Don’t fall into the hype; that’s what you don’t do. You don’t believe everything somebody says they’re going to do. That’s what makes you a mixed martial artist — being prepared in every aspect of the game.

“When I fought Koscheck, he said he was going to bang with me and I was ready to bang, then all of a sudden he took me down. He used my weakness against me. Now it’s to the point where I’m training for all aspects, and I learned a lesson from him.”

Saturday night, Johnson returns to the Octagon for the first time since defeating Hardy, taking on Charlie Brenneman, a rising divisional star coming off the biggest win over his career back in June. The 9-3 Johnson was actually supposed to headline that event opposite the man Brenneman eventually replaced, Nate Marquardt, but a shoulder injury forced him to the sidelines.

“The shoulder is great; I haven’t had any problems with it at all this training camp,” reported Johnson, speaking with Heavy MMA earlier in the month. “I feel 100-percent. I haven’t had any injuries at all this training camp, thank God, knock on wood. I’ll be ready to show up and battle.”

You can’t blame Johnson for uttering the superstitious cliche; he has a history of getting hurt, usually at inopportune times.

“With this sport, injuries are going to come no matter what. Yeah, I’ve had injuries where there were really important fights and stuff like that — I don’t know what’s wrong with my body or my luck, something always happens when I have a really big fight coming up. But that’s the way that God wanted it, so I’m not complaining because it is what it is; I can’t change it.”

Healthy? Check. Weight?

“Oh no — I’m on point. I feel good. I have no worries; I’m gonna make weight,” Johnson answered, chasing his words with another round of booming laughter. He knew the inevitable question was coming. “It’s always going to be a topic; for the rest of my life it’s going to be a topic.”

Having made significant changes to his preparation outside of the cage, maybe his performance on Saturday night against Brenneman can generate new topics of discussion when it comes to the monstrous welterweight.

Johnson now trains out of Imperial Athletics in Boca Raton, Florida. He’s part of the rapidly growing team known as “The Blackzilians,” a group that includes fellow UFC on Versus 6 competitor Michael Johnson, as well as Rashad Evans, Jorge Santiago, and The Villefort Brothers, Danillo and Yuri.

Gone are the days of ballooning to well over 200 pounds between fights, a casual approach to training, and an over-reliance on his size, strength, and natural talents to carry him in a fight. Johnson has found a home and a family in Florida, and with that has come commitment and dedication, even when it comes to learning jiu-jitsu.

“At one point, I can’t lie, I couldn’t stand jiu-jitsu. I did it, but if you don’t have a passion for something, you’re not going to be good at it. Now my passion for jiu-jitsu is picking up, so now my jiu-jitsu game is improving a lot. It’s all about if you want to be good or if you don’t. If you want to be an average fighter or an average person in life, that’s what you’re going to be. I don’t want to be labeled as a one-dimensional fighter.

“It’s just an overall thing,” continued Johnson, further explaining his new-found interest in jiu-jitsu. “But when you’re in the gym, and you’ve got four or five different jiu-jitsu black belts in the gym that come from different gyms, you kind of have no choice but to say, `Okay, I think I’m going to start getting the hang of this jiu-jitsu stuff.’

Johnson laughs again, and it’s clear in both his answers and his demeanor that he’s comfortable — with his team, his training, and his development as a fighter heading into Saturday night’s meeting with Brenneman.

“Babu’s jiu-jitsu style for MMA is amazing. I have Babu as my instructor, but then I have Jorge Santiago who is amazing in jiu-jitsu. He’s giving me pointers, and then I have Danillo Villefort; he’s helping me out. Then I have JZ helping me out in jiu-jitsu; all these guys help us out, and everybody has different pointers and moves. You can never learn too much when it comes to jiu-jitsu or anything in life.

“This was the best decision I’ve ever made,” continued Johnson, who thanks his agent, Glenn Robinson of Authentic Sports Management for helping him transition to his new surroundings in Florida. “Being here training with these guys is fun; everybody’s cool and laid back, nobody has a big head, and we train really hard. This is the best team I’ve ever been on.”

Working with a collection of talented fighters and quality coaches has helped Johnson become more well-rounded, sharpened the tools he’s had tucked away, much like his wrestling heading into the Hardy fight.

“I think I’m improving every day, and I feel like I’ve got a lot of tricks up my sleeve that people haven’t seen yet. I want people to have in their mind that I’m not just a striker. I want them to know that I can wrestle too. I want them to know that I can submit you too if I really, really tried. I just want to let people know that I am a guy who is well-rounded and is improving.”

While Johnson has engaged in some pre-fight verbal sparring with his opponents in the past, there has been nothing of the sort this time around with Brenneman. The Atlanta, Georgia native has a lot of admiration for his opponent and the people he trains with, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to knock his head off once the cage door closes.

“Charlie Brenneman, overall, he’s a good athlete; I respect him, I respect his camp. His coaches are amazing. I’ve sat back, and I’ve talked to his coaches and stuff like that, and those guys are so cool. His camp, his team is one of the teams that I really like; just a bunch of great guys who are cool, they like to fight, they like to train, and they just go out there and get it.

“Charlie has a good chin, a good style of fighting. I actually really like his style; he has a nice little swagger when it comes down to fighting, and he puts it together really well. I don’t have any doubts in Charlie at all. I think he can do anything he wants to do, but when he’s fighting somebody like me, it’s going to be a lot tougher.

“End of the day, it’s business. If I like you or not, we’re in this job together, and I know that if you get a chance, you’re going to try to knock my teeth out, so guess what? I’m going to try to knock your’s out first, just to set the tone; let you know that I’m here.

“I plan on knocking Charlie out. That’s honestly my thing right now is to knock him out, but we’ll see. We’ll see October 1st.”

Anthony Johnson faces Charlie Brenneman Saturday at UFC on Versus 6 from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.