FB TW IG YT VK TH
Search
MORE FROM OUR CHANNELS

Wrestlezone
FB TW IG YT VK TH

Anthony Johnson: With World Series of Fighting, It’s Family & Business




Anthony Johnson’s matchup Saturday (free undercard stream on Sherdog.com at 6:30 p.m. ET) against Mike Kyle is the final fight on his contract with the World Series of Fighting.

In an interview with the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, Johnson discussed his relationship with the promotion, UFC President Dana White and more.

Advertisement
On whether it seemed wrong to be matched against Kyle, who’s coming off a loss: “At first it did because I was like, how is a guy that’s going to call me out lose to a guy that I’ve beat already? But that was in another weight class. Our roster at the time for the WSOF in the 205 weight class was not that big, so I took [the fight]. I’d rather fight than sit on the sideline and watch everybody else have a good time. I want to get out there and punch people too besides my own teammates.”

On his strategy: “This is mixed martial arts. I’m going to do whatever he gives to me, and even if he doesn’t want to give it to me, I’m going to take it. I think I have an advantage at everything except height. He’s just taller than me by like an inch or two. Other than that, I don’t feel like he has an advantage at anything besides his height, plus being uglier than me.”

On whether he sees his relationship with WSOF as family or business: “It’s both. It’s a family, but you’ve still got to see it as a business. I’ve got to eat and I’ve got to live and hopefully make enough money so I can retire and be happy, but WSOF has been great to me. We’ll definitely see what happens after the fight.”

On whether a loss could harm his bargaining power: “I don’t plan on losing any fight that I’ve ever had. If I lose, I lose. That’s just the way the dice roll. I haven’t been thinking what’s in the future or anything like that really. I’ve honestly just been thinking about what I need to do to beat Mike Kyle. All that stuff for the future, I don’t know -- I just don’t have time to think about it.”

On his relationship with UFC President Dana White, who has criticized him in the past: “Dana can say what he wants to say. He’s the man, and I can say pretty much what I want to say about Dana. That’s just how it goes. Everybody has their own opinion. What he has to say that was negative about me, OK, that’s his own two cents. It don’t matter to me.”

On whether he’s erased some of the bad taste fans might have after he missed weight multiple times: “As far as erasing it, I don’t know and I don’t care if I erase anything. I’m not really worried about what people really have to say. I just go out there and do me. I make mistakes. I’m human, and life will go on one way or the other.”

On his relationship with Blackzilians teammate Alistair Overeem: “What relationship? I know him. Alistair does his thing; I do mine. I ain’t fixing to go out and eat dinner with him or nothing like that, but if I see him, I guess I’d say what’s up if he’d say what’s up to me. I mean, I ain’t got nothing against him. I just don’t have nothing -- I just don’t care about him, plain and simple.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 2:37:53).
Related Articles

Subscribe to our Newsletter

* indicates required
Latest News

POLL

Will Conor McGregor fight in 2024?

FIGHT FINDER


FIGHTER OF THE WEEK

Ben Tynan

TOP TRENDING FIGHTERS


+ FIND MORE