Anthony Johnson might be the most terrifying three minutes in pro sports. The UFC light heavyweight slugger has made a career of quick and devastating knockouts—the kind that pull you out of your chair and make you bow your head in honor of the vanquished. He added another one of those to his ledger on Saturday night. The man called "Rumble" put an emphatic end to Ryan Bader's title hopes, finishing him in an 86-second, soul-crushing knockout.
The UFC on Fox main event win at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, puts Johnson firmly in line for a title shot against the winner of the expected rematch between current champ Daniel Cormier and the soon-to-be-returning Jon Jones, who never actually lost the belt but was stripped due to legal issues.
Johnson's win was impressive on its face, but even more so given the setting.
Bader came into the fight riding high on a five-fight win streak, including wins over former champion Rashad Evans and Phil Davis, but all of that positive momentum lasted precisely as long as the sportsmanlike tap of fists between opponents to start the bout. After that, it was all Johnson.
In the opening seconds, Bader, a former Arizona State University wrestling standout, immediately shot for a takedown, but Johnson stuffed the attempt and pivoted to Bader's back. Bader attempted a kimura from beneath Johnson, but Johnson was never in danger and ended up on top, in full mount.
From there, he rained down a hail of thunderous strikes that put Bader out. It was quick. It was brutal. It was vintage Johnson.
It was the seventh time in his 17-fight UFC career that he knocked out an opponent in less than three minutes.
"I will be waiting for whoever has that belt," Johnson told Joe Rogan on the Fox broadcast following his dominant win. Twitter posts echoed Johnson's "dominance" factor in this fight:
Johnson, currently 20-5 and sitting at No. 2 in the UFC rankings, needed a showcase win to campaign for a second attempt at gold. He faced Daniel Cormier in May 2015, and after rocking Cormier early, he faded, ultimately losing by third-round submission.
He rebounded in September with a second-round knockout of Jimi Manuwa, but coming into this bout, UFC president Dana White was only willing to say Bader would earn a title opportunity by defeating Johnson. He never said Johnson was fighting for the same stakes, but after dispatching Bader, there are few other options for the UFC.
Cormier, who worked the fight in the Fox booth, said on the broadcast he expects to beat Jones and set up a rubber match between them, putting Johnson on the back burner in the process. However, most experts expect Jones to defeat Cormier once again, as he did at UFC 182 in January 2015.
The past results tell a fair story of the division. Jones soundly defeated Cormier, who aside from one moment of danger, soundly defeated Johnson. That is fairly universally accepted as the division's hierarchy. However, Johnson's otherworldly power, particularly in the opening minutes of a fight, is one of the sport's premier weapons. According to MMAJunkie's stat wizard Mike Bohn, Johnson's 10th career UFC knockout tied him for third all time with Chuck Liddell, behind only Vitor Belfort (12) and Anderson Silva (11).
Amazingly, however, Johnson's power has followed him through three weight-class changes, from welterweight all the way up to light heavyweight.
That means that no matter who he is facing, whether it is Jones or Cormier or anyone else, he always brings that element of sudden danger that must be respected—even feared. That also makes him an intriguing title challenger, if he indeed gets that second opportunity.
In the event's post-fight press conference, Johnson first said he would be willing to wait as long as the end of the year for a title shot, but later acknowledged he would probably take a fight in the interim, saying, "Yep, that's a paycheck."
As matchups go, a bout with Jones looms as the more intriguing of the two, only because Jones has never faced anyone with Johnson's power, with the possible exception of Belfort.
"Jon and I will fight one day," Johnson said in the post-fight press conference. "We have mutual respect. We show each other respect. We show each other love. I was supposed to be the guy to knock him out. I think we definitely want to challenge each other and see what we're made of. We're just two alpha males like that; we're competitive."
That said, Johnson would likely be an underdog against either Jones or Cormier. His past issues with conditioning and submission defense will continue to follow him into big fights until he washes them away. On any given day, he can do that. Critics be damned, on any given day, an Anthony Johnson right hand can take him to the top spot in the world.
"People can say whatever they want to say," he said on the Fox broadcast. "I'm always going to train hard and do my best to the best of my ability. I'm just trying to have fun. I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody."
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