Anthony "Rumble" Johnson Just Retired In His Prime Following A Second Loss To Daniel Cormier
Last night at UFC 210, Daniel Cormier successfully defended his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. It was the second time this fight went down, and the second time Rumble tapped out to a rear naked choke. This time, he didn’t even attempt to win, it seemed. He broke DC’s nose with a kick, and didn’t capitalize at all, instead shooting for takedowns and trying to outwrestle the former Olympian.
Following the fight, Johnson was very emotional, and announced his retirement…in his prime. Rumble is the guy who we all thought could potentially defeat Jon Jones with his heavy hands, and now, he’s gone. It’s a really weird situation.
He says he has opportunities outside of the cage he’d like to capitalize on, and he’s tired of getting punched in the face for a living. I can respect that. His Twitter bio then changed, along with his header photo.
This sparked discussion IMMEDIATELY online, because obviously, it looks like he’s about to go play for the Los Angeles Rams. He’s 33 years old and has never played football in his life, so that would be weird, but he denied it vehemently to the media in his post-fight presser. It was all very shady and we was reluctant to reveal any details. I don’t think this will be the end for Rumble, because it rarely is on the first retirement in MMA, but if it is, thank you for the wicked sweet knockouts. They were fucking awesome.
If I could talk about the man that beat him for a sec, I’d just like to say Daniel Cormier is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and the true UFC Light Heavyweight Champion no matter what the MMA purists say. Sure, Jon Jones never lost the belt AND defeated Cormier. Guess what? That doesn’t matter when you stop stepping into the cage. Jon Jones was supposed to prove he was the rightful champion on July 9th of last year, and what happened? Oh yeah, he pulled out. Because of “dick pills”. DC still offered to sign a waiver acknowledging he knew Jones was on steroids and fight him anyway, and made me a fan for life.
His “heel turn” in the cage after the fight was fantastic as well, which I predicted. When you embrace the boos, even if you are as nice and humble as Cormier, you’ll always get a pop out of me. He pro-wrestling’d it up and cut promos on Jimi Manuwa and Jon Jones, hyping both fights and setting up intrigue for a backup just in case Jon doesn’t make the walk next time. It was brilliant, and I hope we get to see a lot more heel-DC in the future.