Issue 121

November 2014

Blackzilians striking coach Henri Hooft explains how UFC light heavyweight Anthony Johnson turned his career around.

When it comes to Anthony Johnson, and how he’s performed recently, I think him finally realizing what he needed to do in terms of cutting weight has helped him mature as a fighter.

When he fought Vitor Belfort (UFC 142, January 2012), I trained with him throughout the winter. We were working on Christmas day and I couldn’t spend time with my wife and daughter which was very hard. 

Then after everything happened with missing weight and the fight, I told him things had to change, otherwise I had no reason to train with someone like him anymore. I said if he couldn’t control himself at middleweight then this wasn’t the weight class for him and that he had to go up to 205lb. I knew he had the speed and the power to do it.

From that moment on he started to sort things out. He did it for his manager, his trainers and, most importantly, himself. He didn’t want to let anyone down and he wanted to show people that he could do it. Now he’s enjoying his time fighting and he’s a totally different guy.

Everyone saw his highlights early on in his career, he’s always had power. However, after getting cut he’s returned to the UFC an even better striker because he’s very intelligent, extremely athletic and he listens well. I think a lot of his success has to do with him sparring with kickboxer Tyrone Spong. 

When he used to spar he would move away a lot and he also wasn’t used to the hard sparring that we do now. Tyrone put him in positions where he had to stand his ground and from then on I started working with him specifically on his striking.

We began working on him fighting in a more relaxed way instead of doing everything in a hurry. I wanted him to know that he could still be explosive and surprise people, but he could also fight in a calm way and win the fight. All he needed to do was pick his shots, like he did against Andrei Arlovski in 2013.

He’s always been an explosive and intelligent fighter, but the cut to 170lb, then 185lb was the problem. When he lost, it was because he was submitted, not because he isn’t good on the ground but because he was tired.

Now that he’s in the correct weight class he spars at the same level as good technical fighters, like Tyrone. He knows what to do. He’s also got a very good chin and can take a punch if he has to. But he has very good eyes too, so it’s very rare he ever gets clipped. 

In my opinion, there are two people in MMA who can beat Jon Jones: Rashad Evans and Anthony Johnson. Rashad can beat Jones if he’s really focused and he’s really trying hard, because he’s very fast, very explosive and he’s got great wrestling. 

Anthony has the total package. I’ve already mentioned how good his chin is, and everyone knows that he’s strong, has a good wrestling base, and has power in his hands and his legs. However, most importantly, he’s not afraid of Jones.

Watch Jones’ previous fights and you’ll see that his opponents aren’t really willing to take a punch to deliver one. They all want a clean fight against him where they can use their game plans.

You’re not going to win a clean fight with Jon Jones, you need to make it into a street fight and try and beat him up, otherwise nobody is going to beat him for the next 10 years.

Anthony is a guy who doesn’t have a game plan and he isn’t trying to have a clean fight with anybody. He’s just going in there to destroy whoever has been put in front of him. That mentality, mixed with a guy whose technique is solid, is very, very dangerous.