Anthony Johnson fell short in his second attempt to capture the UFC Light Heavyweight Title when he was submitted by Daniel Cormier at UFC 210.
One of the reasons that the fighter thinks that he lost the fight is because he fell off track against the champion.
“I felt great,” he said after the event. “I trained my butt off to fight Daniel. You still saw ‘Rumble’ out there trying to knock heads off and going out there and give it his all. So, I went out there and did my thing, and whatever happened was going to happen, so I wasn’t really worried about anything. The game plan was to win. Keep my composure, control the pace and things like that. And just in the middle of the fight, I just kind of fell off track and started playing his game, which was wrestling and things like that. I felt fine. I felt great. It wasn’t like I was tired. He beat me. I don’t take anything away from him.”
Johnson would also shock the MMA world by announcing his retirement after the fight as well.
Rumors started spreading immediately that Johnson was going to play pro football, but the retired fighter says that it isn’t true.
“And no, I am not about to play football for the (Los Angeles) Rams. Because everybody’s hitting me up and saying some crazy stuff about (how) I’m about to play for the Rams. Why would I go into another sport that’s the same thing as this, and you take all this impact and stuff? That’s absolutely insane,” says Johnson.
Henri Hooft, the longtime coach of Johnson, recently eluded to the fact that Johnson was doing something football related after the fighter announced his retirement.
