UFC welterweight Anthony Johnson was supposed to fight John Howard at the UFC on Versus 1 event a while back but had to pull out of the fight due to a knee injury. I think I recall him actually having surgery on the knee, and he's having problems getting the knee healthy and returning to training. Thus, he hasn't been able to keep his weight under control according to a recent piece on MMAJunkie. Johnson was already a huge welterweight as he walks around at over 200lbs, and his manager claims that Johnson is bigger than UFC light heavyweight Tito Ortiz. Check it:
He has to maintain a very diligent cardio routine to stay in striking range of 170 (pounds)," ... "Because of his knee injury, his weight has gotten up a little bit, and we don't want to delay his comeback because of a weight issue. So we're entertaining the possibility of taking a fight at 185 (pounds)."
"Anthony Johnson is one of our more solid light heavyweights right now," Pavia said today. "I'm pretty sure he's bigger than Tito (Ortiz)."
According to Pavia, Johnson is entertaining the thought of taking a fight at middleweight but it could only be a temporary move depending on how his knee holds up and where his weight is. Johnson says he wants to win the UFC welterweight title then possibly move up to the middleweight division. However, with his skillset right now, that's probably not going to happen. He has good power and is athletic/explosive, but he's not very well rounded and probably gets put on his back by the better wrestlers at 170. At middleweight(185), there are not as many wrestlers and he may be able to have more success. The crazy thing is that he's still very young and his body is maturing physically, so he's going to get bigger regardless. So why not go ahead and make the jump to 185? Let's debate this thing.
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