Last week FIGHT! Magazine's Web site posted my debut story on Anthony "Rumble" Johnson. A moniker of "Danger" would also work for this rising star that not enough people talk about. Perhaps a win over Matt Brown at the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale June 20 will turn more heads and earn Johnson a spot on a bigger card.
A few nuggets that didn't make the story due to space constraints:
Johnson burns with an insatiable feeling of being overlooked. Disrespected. Sometimes dissed. Prior to his fight against Tommy Speer, Johnson bumped into Matt Hughes when leaving the locker room and said, "What's up?" Hughes brushed past him like he was a lowly undercard club fighter.
“I do want to fight Matt. He was kind of a dick. Tommy was his boy. He didn’t make any facial expression and just kept going. That’s messed up. If the UFC wants his career to keep going, they better not let me fight him.”
[Does anyone not hate Matt Hughes?]
On how doing honest work on a farm every day molded his work ethic and desire to be the best:
“My granddad beat it in me to be the best person I can be and work hard for what you want. It’s worked out so far and I know he’s happy. If he could complain he still would, telling me to do better than I am right now, but he’s happy. He taught me to be a man.”
Johnson's collegiate coach, Joe Arminas on the credo at Lassen Community college, where Johnson broke assistant coach Joe Carr’s mark of 101 consecutive wins at the school with his own tally 104. You may get beat by somebody, but you make sure that somebody knows who you are. Walk away with a sense of respect win, lose or draw.
“If one guy was slacking in that room, everybody on that team got on him/ You had no choice otherwise you got your ass whooped. I had no doubt in my mind Anthony was going to win. He was a man amongst boys.”
On how much Johnson hates to lose:
“I hate losing a game of checkers or UNO.”
No comments:
Post a Comment