As the old phrase goes, necessity is the mother of invention. For Anthony Johnson, the idea of dodging palm strikes from Kevin Burns - some of which were inadvertently straying into his eyes – wasn’t fitting his idea of a typical Saturday night in the Octagon this past July.
So he improvised.
“I had no choice but to wrestle,” said Johnson, normally known for his ferocious striking attack. But on this night, it wasn’t to be. Luckily, Johnson was a junior college national wrestling champion and as the bout entered the third and final round, his fight game improvisation had him closing in on a points win.
Then, with less than two minutes left, a final strike poked Johnson in the eye and he went down in pain. The bout was halted, but with referee Steve Mazzagatti out of position to make the disqualification call, Johnson was issued a TKO defeat.
It could have been enough to incite a riot, or at the very least a torrent of harsh words, but Johnson, in obvious pain, instead took the opportunity to accept the referee’s call and show a level of class that should have been an example to other pro athletes.
“I just try to respect the sport,” said Johnson humbly. “I didn’t want to make the sport look bad, so I just tried to represent myself as a fighter and as a man for the sport.”
He did. But once the television lights went down and the adrenaline wore off, Johnson was left to deal with the pain of his injured right eye.
“I wouldn’t want anybody else to experience that type of pain,” he said. “I felt it the instant it happened, but after I didn’t feel it for a while. But then later that night, after my adrenaline stopped pumping, then it hit me again. That’s when I really felt it, in the middle of the night. The pain was unbearable. You know when you get brain-freeze and you try to hold your breath just to make the pain go away, that’s what I was doing a lot of. I just felt that pressure and pain in my eye and it was undescribable.”
Eye surgery would follow, but after getting cleared to go back to the gym, Johnson got his Christmas wish early – a rematch with Burns this Saturday at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale in Las Vegas. It’s the quick shot at redemption few get, and he plans on making the most of it.
“I didn’t unleash on him like I should have,” said Johnson, 5-2 as a pro. “He's a very tough guy with a lot of heart, but last time ended the wrong way; this time it'll end the right way.”
For Johnson, the “right way” means coming into the Octagon with his head clear. Leading up to the first bout, that wasn’t the case, as outside issues clouded his vision come fight night.
“The Burns fight I held back because I had so many problems going into the cage,” he said. “That shouldn’t have been an issue for me because in this sport you need to have your head clear, but I’m young and I’m still learning. I got rid of those problems that were affecting me outside of the cage and I got better all around, so this time it’s gonna be a different story.”
So in an odd way, could the loss to Burns have been the proverbial “blessing in disguise” – minus the eye surgery of course?
“He actually made me get my act together even more,” said Johnson. “He made me stronger mentally, and physically, you don’t have to be the most physical guy to win a fight. Look at BJ Penn, he ain’t got no body, and Royce Gracie damn sure ain’t got a body, but they’re whuppin’ everybody’s ass left and right. 90 percent of this stuff is mental, and Burns made me more mentally ready for this fight.”
Scary stuff, especially if Johnson shows the form that saw him blast through Chad Reiner and Tommy Speer. But what makes him more frightening is that he’s only 24 years old with just seven pro fights. Even some of the newcomers fighting on the same card for a UFC contract dwarf him in age and number of pro fights. It’s a fact that Johnson dismisses.
“All I think about is beating everybody up,” said Johnson with a chuckle. “We’re all going for the same goal, and age is nothing but a number – look at Randy (Couture) and Chuck (Liddell) and all these OG veterans and they’re still doing their thing. They don’t care how old you are, they’ll still fight you.”
Is this a hint that we could be seeing Johnson around the Octagon for another 20 years?
“I hope so,” he laughed. “If my body permits me to do it, I’ll keep going.”
One step at a time though, and that first step is getting even with Kevin Burns.
“This fight is about to be more entertaining than the first one, I promise you that,” said Johnson. “There are no excuses this time – we’ve just gotta go in there and do what we gotta do and it’s gonna be explosive and action-packed, so don’t close your eyes. Somebody’s gonna get knocked out, and I plan on it not being me.”
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