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“I Want to Come Back and Just Hurt People”: Anthony Johnson Gives an Update on His UFC Return

Published 11/17/2019, 11:42 AM EST

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Former UFC light heavyweight title contender, Anthony Johnson announced his return to the octagon a few weeks ago. Although as per his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, he would have fought in the heavyweight division, later Anthony Johnson showed his interest in dropping down to light heavyweight again for a fight with Jon Jones, a fight that nearly happened before Jones had to vacate the title.

Anthony Johnson has been away from the sport of MMA since his last fight against Daniel Cormier, which was more than 2 years ago. That certainly raises the question of whether he will be able to perform as he used to before his retirement. Well, if you can trust the words of Rumble’s coach then he is still dangerous.

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Talking about the retirement, Johnson said:

“I needed it to happen. I needed to hit rock bottom the way I was as far as like going to the gym and taking care of yourself. I have been in the gym since I was 8, It can take a lot of wear and tear on any human being. I am glad I took the break. Coming back I feel a lot better, my punches are stronger, harder, and faster.”

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Although Johnson has shown interest at fighting at light heavyweight again right now he is weighing somewhere around 240 pounds according to him and he is leaning towards the heavyweight division. However, he is confident that his knockout power and speed will give the fighters at the heavyweight division some serious trouble. Johnson continued:

“Right now I feel good to be at 240. If I had to fight right now at heavyweight I would feel just fine. I feel like I still have my strength I am definitely not gonna be the bigger heavyweight guy. There are some muscles in HW and I feel my advantage would probably be speed. Everybody in the HW has got power, but I think I am much faster than those guys and I probably have a little bit more knock out power.”

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“Whenever I come back I am gonna make sure it’s gonna be known. I wanna come back and showcase everything in the fight and just hurt people,”  added Johnson.

Well, nothing is official yet when it comes to what weight class Rumble is going to compete. At this point, Anthony Johnson has not jumped into the USADA testing pool and he has said that there are still a few discussions to be done with UFC before the fight. Johnson is aiming for June or July for his much-awaited UFC return.

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Written by:

Alok Nayak

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