Anthony Johnson and his legal team have filed a complaint to the New York State Athletic Commission after the controversy surrounding the official weigh-in for UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier prior to UFC 210.
For those who didn’t see what happened, Cormier initially weighed in a little overweight for his bout against Johnson. Then disappeared backstage for a few moments, only to return and make weight after leaning on some towels. The so called 'towel trick' is when a fighter leans on a towel in a certain matter to offset his weight and to essentially trick the scales so the person can make weight.
No matter what the outcome of the whole matter is, the now retired Johnson doesn’t want Cormier to be stripped of the UFC Light Heavyweight Title.
Johnson took to Instagram (the post has since been deleted) to express his views on the situation:
“First and foremost I never said I wanted D.C. stripped of the title. He beat me and that’s that…2nd I said everything would be handled After the fight because I was focused on the Fight. Weigh ins was messed up and at the end of the day it was wrong. If I lose fans because I’m fighting for what’s right then so be it. If it happen to me, it can happen to anybody. The world made all of this noise about it and when an appeal is made the world will cry about the appeal. That makes zero sense! Weigh ins was messed up and the fight wasn’t because he beat me. I’m not complaining about the loss, I’m complaining about the weigh ins. D.C. shouldn’t be stripped at all but for sure answer to the weigh in situation. If you hate me you hate that’s what you have to deal with. If you love me then I love you back…Btw this definitely isn’t about money, that’s for damn sure. It’s the principal of the situation for you knuckleheads that have no brain.”
Craig Zimmerman, who is Johnson’s lawyer, spoke with ESPN about the complaint filed and alluded to Cormier possibly being stripped of the title.
“I think you need to take the post in its entirety,” said the attorney. “When you talk to Anthony, he is very upset about how the weigh-in went. He feels he was cheated; he felt that ‘DC’ cheated at the weigh-in. He doesn’t want to see anyone else have that happen. At the same point, what I think he was trying to say was, he doesn’t want it to seem as if he’s trying to fight the fight. He acknowledges he lost the fight. The issue is, he wants the NYSAC to acknowledge ‘DC’ came in overweight and go from there, as if that’s how he weighed in, as overweight. If, as part of their decision, they don’t strip him of the title, Anthony is not going to make a big issue of that. If they do, he’s fine with it. He wants the acknowledgement that the weigh-in went bad, that he was overweight, and that no one else has this happen to them.”
A ruling has yet to be announced by the NYSAC representatives, but one should be coming in the next few weeks.
