Athletes
Donte Johnson | Fixing Things That Weren’t Quite Broken
Middleweight Prospect Talks Important Lessons, Moving To Las Vegas
For a lot of people, the proverb “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” can be an unspoken guiding principle that keeps them chugging along, steadily moving forward as things just continue as they always have. Sure, there may be stumbles or detours, but never true points where something needs real repair or genuine change is called for.
You can frequently see it with athletes, where success becomes the ultimate measuring stick and barometer for how to approach things, and unless everything goes off the rails, they’re more likely to stay the course than switch things up, even when there are little signals that change could be a good thing.
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Donte Johnson didn’t wait for things to go completely awry before recognizing he needed to make a shift; it took only one close fight.
“The adjustments and the clarity we got from that fight alone is a blessing,” Johnson said of his split decision win over Cody Brundage in March. “We’ve made the adjustments, and we continue every day, but we needed that fight.To have that fight and still come out victorious is even better. We needed it, we got it out the way, and now we’re ready to move forward.”
After running through Darion Abbey on Season 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series — at heavyweight — to earn his place on the roster, the 27-year-old Wisconsin native dropped two divisions and debuted with a second-round submission win over Sedriques Dumas last November, earning a Performance of the Night bonus for his efforts. It advanced his record to 7-0 and set up a bout with Dusko Todorovic, who was forced to withdraw due to an injury and was replaced by Brundage.
Most anticipated the undefeated finisher to run through his middleweight counterpart, but Brundage showed his mettle and leaned on his significant edge in experience to make the fight the toughest of Johnson’s career. In the end, the cards fell in his favor, but the nature of the bout was enough to make Johnson make a major change ahead of his second bout of the year.
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“It’s made a huge difference, and I can feel it,” he said regarding relocating to Las Vegas and shifting his preparations to Xtreme Couture. “My sparring partners back at home — no knock to them; I love them to death — but 155 pounds, 17-22 years old; it's different. When we got here, got around guys that are the best in the world — guys in the top 15, sparring with the champ, Mr. Strickland — there were growing pains, but we’re ready now.”
While some fighters opt to just travel for training camps, Johnson has made the full-time commitment to Las Vegas, seeking to soak up the benefits of being in the room at the Las Vegas outpost year-round.
“I’ve got an apartment out here. I love it out here. I love the people out here, and God keeps showing me every day why he brought me out here,” he said. “I love it.”
The well-spoken middleweight also likes that the UFC seems to still be giving him a push, even after his grinding battle with Brundage earlier this year.
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That contest was one of four to air on CBS as part of its UFC 326 broadcast, and this weekend in Philadelphia at UFC 330, Johnson is back on the prelims, in the same position he was last time out for his matchup with Eric McConico.
“It means everything because they’re giving me a chance, an opportunity, and they’re giving me a little push,” he said. “First off, I thank God for choosing me, and then I thank the UFC for choosing me, and I’m not gonna let either one of them down. It’s a blessing that they got my back, and I’ve got theirs. I’m gonna show up to work every day. My job is to be the best employee the UFC has ever had.”
Opportunities like this can come with added pressure, especially when you’re a young, relatively inexperienced fighter.
Fortunately for Johnson, he’s no longer feeling any of that pressure; not after the way things played out with Brundage, and his social media channels lit up with folks wanting to let him know their thoughts about his performance.
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“After that last fight, that first big show, after you go through that stage of people losing their money, so now they hate you, and ‘You should probably go do this or that to yourself.’ We got that out the way. Now the mission and the vision is clearer than ever before.
“100 percent, because we ain’t perfect and we all listen to things we shouldn’t listen to, but we got it out the way,” he added, acknowledging the benefit of experiencing the social media blowback early and now being done with it. “Now I don’t care what you guys say; you’re just gonna watch me work.”
The powerhouse from Fond-du-Lac clocks back in on Saturday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philly, squaring off with McConico, an MMA Lab representative who has split his first four appearances inside the Octagon and enters off a quality win over Brazilian veteran Rodolfo Vieira.
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Johnson has done his homework and is aware of the weaponry that McConico brings to the table this weekend, but he’s ready to use some of his tendencies and preferred tactics against him while getting back to his fight-ending ways.
“He’s a veteran, and you can tell by the way he fights that he’s a pretty experienced fighter,” Johnson said. “He takes his time, but we’re gonna use that to our advantage because we get after it. He’s a southpaw; he’s used to fighting orthodox guys, so he likes to throw his cross, his rear kick, so we’re just gonna be in his face so he can’t get those kicks off.
“We’ll slip the cross, split the cross, and do what we gotta do in the meantime. We’ll take away his kicks, get in his face, and end the fight that way.”
UFC 330: Makhachev vs Machado Garry took place live from Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 15, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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