It was the beating heard round the world.
Ryan Bader walked into the Octagon last Saturday as a potential light heavyweight title challenger. A few minutes later, he was assisted out of the cage after a brutal and swift beating from Anthony Johnson, the former welterweight who has, over the past few years, morphed into one of the scariest fighters on the planet.
Bader made many costly mistakes in the 86 seconds the fight actually lasted, but the writing was on the wall from the moment he lunged in for an ill-advised takedown. It was an admission that Bader did not want anything to do with Johnson’s striking and was desperate to get things to a more favorable location.
Unfortunately for Bader, there was no favorable location. Johnson never reached the same wrestling levels Bader did, but in the Octagon, it doesn’t matter. Johnson used his wrestling to advance into mount and then punched Bader into the living deaths. Such is Johnson’s power, in fact, that upon viewing the ending in slow motion, the final punch that actually knocked Bader out appeared to land on his hands.
So, yeah. Anthony Johnson is a scary dude. And he’s also probably next in line for the winner of the April bout between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. But the question Bleacher Report MMA Lead Writers Jonathan Snowden and Jeremy Botter have gathered today to answer is this: Is Rumble ferocious and terrifying enough for Jones, if Jones beats Cormier, to take a look at what’s waiting for him and just decide to move immediately to heavyweight?
Let’s find out.
Jeremy Botter: On the surface, this seems to be a silly question, like we’re asking if Jon Jones, the greatest fighter this planet or any other has ever seen, is so afraid of another man that he’ll run off to another division just so he doesn’t have to go through the horrors of fighting him.
To that I say, phooey. Or however you spell it.
Jon Jones will probably leave 205 pounds behind quite soon. It is a move that we’ve wanted since he began laying waste to the division years ago. It’s always been a question of when, not if, and that “when” is finally coming around.
But when it does happen, it won’t be due to his fear of another human. Not even when that human being is Anthony Johnson, a terrifying knockout artist who isn’t known for reserving his anger solely for the Octagon.
Jones himself recently noted on Twitter that he probably has three more fights before a move to heavyweight. Those will likely be the Cormier rematch that is coming in April, then Johnson and, finally, the long-awaited rematch with Alexander Gustafsson. After that, he’s gone.
I guess the biggest question I have on this, Jonathan, is whether Johnson might actually be able to beat Jones. I’m not sold on the idea.
Jonathan Snowden: It is hard to reconcile the Anthony Johnson putting fools to sleep at 205 pounds with the young fighter you and I met years ago. Back then he was struggling to make 170 pounds, and I distinctly remember goading you into cornering him in a hotel lobby for a brief interview after he failed to make weight.
That version of Johnson got outwrestled and physically outclassed by Josh Koscheck. A former NCAA champion at 174 pounds, Koscheck was a top welterweight at the time. But he was average-sized at best.
Johnson has been so shrouded in controversy that his transformation into a complete wrecking machine has remained largely unexplored. Not only has he been remarkably successful, winning 10 of 11 fights at 205 pounds, but eight of his 10 wins competing against the big boys came by way of brutal knockout.
Johnson is more than just a light heavyweight. He’s a great light heavyweight. And he’s one fully capable of beating anyone in the division—including Jones.
Jeremy: I guess. I mean, we’ve seen Jon Jones go up against better-credentialed wrestlers for years, and all he’s done is outwrestle them. He outwrestled Daniel Cormier, for God’s sake, a fighter who has true world-class wrestling—and not the “world class” tag Joe Rogan applies so liberally.
And he did so with ease, because that’s what makes Jones so very great: He analyzes your game, finds out where your strengths lie and then beats you using those very strengths just to humiliate you. Because he can.
Which leads me to believe that Jones will want a standing, striking battle with Johnson simply because people say that’s where Johnson has an advantage over Jones, and he’ll want to prove people are imbeciles. I suppose that’s going to leave Jones open for a deadly knockout blow from Johnson, but I just don’t see it.
Because here’s the ugly truth about Johnson (well, the ugly truth in the cage, at least; everything about Johnson outside the cage has been ugly for a long time): He is a quitter. A front-runner. If he doesn’t knock Jones out in the first round, he will quit, and then Jones will break him. Simple as that.
Jonathan: I think there is something to that. We’ve seen it over the years with Johnson’s teammate Vitor Belfort as well.
Some fighters are amazing when they are winning. Their success, for whatever reason, fuels them. Confidence begets confidence, which begets performance. The human brain is truly a mystery!
All too often, however, those same fighters lower the gates and lock up shop for the night at the first sign of trouble. When things don’t go Belfort’s way, he wilts. Johnson too tends to give up on himself, each heaving breath and wasted moment sending him further and further down a spiral of despair.
That makes a fight with Jones all the more compelling. A wise man recognizes his own weaknesses. I think Johnson knows he has to win fights early and emphatically. At least he certainly fights like a man with that mission in mind.
Against Jones, he’ll truly put everything he has into the first 10 minutes. After that, they’re playing the long game—and that’s where Jones excels.
But in those early moments, before the sweat glistens, this is Johnson’s fight to win. If anyone in the world has ever had a puncher’s chance, an opportunity to land a single blow that changes the inevitable, it’s this guy.
Jeremy: I still have to disagree with you. You talk about Jones excelling at the long game, but the truth is that there is no place in professional fighting Jones does not excel. Well, in the cage, anyway. It’s there he is the absolute best ever, and it’s there Johnson doesn’t stand much of a chance at all.
Sure, he’s got the power and he’s got the punch, but that’s it. And the odds of Jon Jones, light heavyweight champion of the world, not being ready for that one sharp tool in Johnson’s arsenal are slim to none.
Johnson won’t be a threat. He’ll be just another page of the storybook ending to Jones' light heavyweight career, before he goes off in the sequel and wrecks the lives and careers of heavyweights, too.
Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden are veteran journalists covering mixed martial arts and other combat sports.
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