Anthony Johnson never ended up fighting Jon Jones before he hung up the gloves. But, recently “Rumble” reported he would return to the UFC for a scrap with “Bones”, on one condition…
Johnson shocked the MMA world back in 2017, when he announced he was retiring, following a loss to then, light-heavyweight champ, Daniel Cormier. Although it marked the second time Johnson had been defeated by “DC”, the feared slugger had laid waste to many top contenders during his second run with the UFC.
Well, Johnson has expressed an interest in facing Jones before (they were expected to fight back at UFC 187), and during a recent episode of the Into the Weeds podcast, he said this (quote via MMA Fighting):
“The only way I’d come out of retirement is if Jon Jones goes to heavyweight, and then that’s when I’ll come out of retirement and fight Jon,” Johnson said. “I mean, that’s the only guy I want to fight, because after him, I can officially say I did my job, my mission is complete. Although I didn’t win a title, I fought the best of the best. I can go to sleep at night.”
Now, of course, a gazillion folks would love to see this fight. But, when you consider that Jones has kind of dismissed the idea of moving up to heavyweight to face Cormier – for a title – it would be pretty shocking if he was on board with this proposal. Jones has very little to gain by facing Johnson at heavyweight.
And what about Johnson returning to the UFC to challenge Jones for the light-heavweight title? If you’ve seen recent pics of Johnson (see above), it looks like his days of cutting to 205 are long gone.
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