If you were to predict five years ago that Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson would compete against one another for the UFC light-heavyweight title – not once, but twice – you would have gotten some sideways looks, and deservedly so.
That’s because five years ago Johnson was a disgraced ex-UFC fighter and Daniel Cormier was a burgeoning talent climbing the heavyweight ranks in Strikeforce.
As they get set to headline UFC 210 Saturday night in Buffalo, N.Y., Cormier has established himself as one of MMA’s greats while Johnson has evolved into the most feared knockout artist in the entire sport.
“You never know who’s coming,” Cormier told Sportsnet. “The projection of our careers did not say we would be here.”
Johnson, 33, debuted in the UFC in 2007 competing in the 170-pound division. He was just 3-0 at the time. His first fight in the Octagon lasted 13 seconds as he turned the lights out on Chad Reiner with a left hook. That’s when most MMA fans got their first glimpse at what Johnson was capable of.
Electric debut aside, Johnson’s early UFC career was full of peaks and valleys. The peaks saw him earn five more knockout wins but the valleys saw him miss weight three times and often fold under pressure.
His first UFC stint ended with an embarrassing performance inside and outside the cage against Vitor Belfort at UFC 142 in January of 2012. After years of depleting his body in an attempt to compete at welterweight—if you see Johnson in person you’ll be baffled as to how a man that size ever fought at 170 pounds—he decided to move to middleweight. Only he struggled to make the 185-pound limit and eventually just gave up. He stepped on the scale weighing an insulting 197 pounds, 12 pounds over his contracted weight. He gave up in the fight too, tapping to a rear-naked choke late in the first round.
UFC brass decided to release him.
“When you’re young you think you’re on top of the world,” Johnson told Sportsnet. “Before I got cut, I used to tell myself, ‘Oh they won’t cut me because I’m young, I put on exciting fights and that’s what they want, the fans don’t want me to go,’ and it doesn’t work that way. I didn’t see it as a business, I just saw it as about me but after I got cut I definitely started seeing it as a business.”
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Several months after Johnson was released, I sat down with former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans, a teammate and mentor to Johnson. Evans told me then that “Rumble” would one day make good on a second chance in the UFC and win the promotion’s 205-pound title.
It was a bold statement at the time. As a matter of fact, it seemed downright outlandish. Johnson was a punch line in the MMA community back then. He was the poster boy for missing weight and not living up to one’s potential.
Fast-forward five years and Evans’ bold prediction is on the verge of coming true, and he has been one of the catalysts in Johnson’s career resurgence.
“Rashad to me is like a big brother,” Johnson said. “People don’t know but Rashad was the reason I started fighting. I watched him on The Ultimate Fighter, my aunt and I saw him fight in the finale against Brad Imes [in 2005]. She was all into it, she was throwing punches in the air like she was fighting and I was just sitting there bobbing and weaving like I’m getting punched at and after that I had to try it out.”
Following his loss to Belfort, Johnson signed with Titan Fighting Championships where he allowed himself to compete at a more natural weight. After beating future two-weight World Series of Fighting champion David Branch by decision in a 195-pound catchweight bout, Johnson moved up to 205 pounds and the “Rumble” we’ve come to know was born.
Cormier’s path to UFC stardom was also a winding road.
When an Olympic wrestling career that saw him take fourth place in 2004 and be named captain of the United States in 2008 ended, Cormier transitioned to a new sport. He made his MMA debut as a 30-year-old heavyweight, finishing his first six MMA opponents, then beating veteran Devin Cole by decision to earn a spot in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. He defeated ADCC submission wrestling world champion Jeff Monson in a reserve bout then replaced Alistair Overeem in a semifinal matchup against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who was fresh off a destruction of legend Fedor Emelianenko. Cormier proceeded to knock Silva out with an uppercut to outclass Josh Barnett in the final to win the Grand Prix.
The Lafayette, La., native’s dominance continued after Strikeforce was purchased by the UFC. He rag-dolled heavyweight staples Frank Mir and Roy Nelson in 2013 in his first two UFC contests before moving down to 205 pounds the next year because his teammate Cain Velasquez was the heavyweight champ at the time.
Cormier was even more impressive at light-heavyweight, finishing Patrick Cummins and future Hall of Famer Dan Henderson without issue before suffering the first loss of his career. It was a unanimous decision to his nemesis Jon Jones at UFC 182 in January 2015 in a fight that was much closer than people tend to remember it being.
Meanwhile, as Cormier became a UFC star, a six-fight winning streak outside the UFC earned Johnson a second chance with Dana White and Co. A dominant victory over top-five contender Phil Davis plus brutal finishes over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Alexander Gustafsson earned Johnson a title shot against Jon Jones in May 2015 at UFC 187.
When Jones was stripped of his title and suspended indefinitely by the UFC when he was charged with a felony hit-and-run, a Johnson-Cormier title bout was put together.
“Hell, I learned a lot during the fight,” Johnson said of his first fight with Cormier. “When I was walking out to the cage I was already thinking about what I needed to do to get better. The next day I had breakfast with my coaches and we were already talking about what we needed to do to make sure I don’t get in that situation again.”
Twenty-five seconds into their first fight, Johnson became the first person to knock Cormier down when he landed a monstrous right hand that sent Cormier flying across the cage. Cormier to his credit popped right back up and took control of the remainder of the round.
Within the first 15 seconds of the second round, Johnson hit Cormier with a hard right hand and two left high kicks that were partially blocked—and it’s a good thing too. Just ask Kevin Burns what happens when you don’t block Johnson’s left high kick.
Cormier took Johnson’s best shots and imposed his will. He wore down Johnson and bullied him. Cormier believes Johnson was ready to quit in the second round but the fight wasn’t stopped until midway through the third when Johnson tapped to a rear-naked choke for the fourth time in his career as his corner pleaded with him to not give up.
“The question was always: how was he going to deal with adversity?” Cormier said. “When things get tough how’s he going to handle that? He hasn’t done well with it so far and we’ll see what happens [in the rematch] when he gets dealt more adversity because he will face adversity in this fight.
” It’s not going to be smooth sailing against me. I’m going to press him and make him work.”
Anthony Johnson eats an elbow from Daniel Cormier at UFC 187 (John Locher/AP)
Cormier used his grappling to foil Johnson the first time. In the lead-up to UFC 210, he has vowed to beat Johnson at his own game this time and strike more with him. We’ll soon find out if this is gamesmanship or if he’s serious.
“The fans want it and if he’s a man of his words he’ll stand there and bang,” Johnson said.
Judging by how the first fight went and the violence we’re likely to see in Saturday’s tilt, it might come as a surprise that Johnson and Cormier are quite fond of one another.
Their relationship didn’t begin at UFC 187. The two men first met long before either began considering MMA as a career path. Johnson grew up in Georgia but when he was a student at Lassen College in Susanville, Calif., he remembers seeing Cormier wrestle Cael Sanderson. Cormier remembers when Johnson used to work wrestling camps when Oklahoma State, Cormier’s alma mater, would visit the West Coast.
They’ve known one another for more than a decade yet a cordial relationship won’t have any impact on what happens in the cage.
“He’s a nice guy. He’s a very nice guy. He’s from the South, so he’s very respectful. He’s kind of raised in the same ways I am,” Cormier said. “That’s all irrelevant to me. I could think you’re the nicest human being on the planet—I mean I idolized Dan Henderson—it doesn’t change anything when I fight you.”
A side plot to keep an eye on at UFC 210 is the fact Jones will be in attendance at KeyBank Center. Jones is currently serving a suspension for a failed drug test but is expected to face the winner of Cormier-Johnson later this year.
