A victorious Johnson was awarded a title belt for winning the grand prix, but that belt provided some issues between Johnson and US Customs agents.
“Yeah, I got stopped,” Johnson told MMA Junkie. “You can’t bring something like that through and not expect them to be curious. They were like, ‘What is that?’ And I’m like, ‘a belt.’ And then they were like, ‘Where did you get that?’ And I’m like, ‘in Asia.’ And then I guess they weren’t MMA fans, so I had to explain the whole deal with it. Not too many people pull through customs with huge title belts. So it took a while, but once I explained it they were cool.”
Johnson is already back and safe in the United States, as the belt didn’t cause any real issues when it was all said and done.
The fighter, who has won a plethora of titles throughout his career, calls the grand prix belt the best of them all.
“This is my favorite one, man,” Johnson said. “This one means the most to me. Years ago I was a huge fan of PRIDE, and you’d see the belts guys like Mirko Cro Cop got when they won their grand prix tournaments. That was a special deal. So to go over to Japan with their history for tournaments and add my name to the list of people who have won tournaments and get the belt, yeah, that makes this one real special for me.”
There is no word yet on when Johnson is going to fight again, but a shot at the One Flyweight World Championship may be in his future.
