After a hiatus of two years and three months, Anthony Johnson will fight again in the Octagon on Saturday at UFC 172, against Phil Davis. “Rumble” has crushed most of his opponents in this period and told Tatame.com that he is coming back with one lesson learned from his last appearance in the organization, when he was submitted by Vitor Belfort at UFC 142.
I’ve learned to protect myself, protect my neck. I trained specifically to that fight and, now, I train jiu-jitsu even more. It will be hard to Phil Davis submit me. Definitely, harder than was for Vitor.
Johnson is also happy because his absence from the UFC will finally end.
Return to the UFC means a lot to me, even more because I’m facing someone like Davis. This shows how hard I worked in this gap. When I left, I thought that I would never come back. I was only thinking about fighting and having fun. On Saturday I’m looking forward to keeping the fight standing up. He will have a long night if he won’t be able to keep me on the ground.
“Rumble” will debut at light heavyweight division in the UFC on Saturday. Previously he did the most of his fights as a welterweight.
Watch Bloody Elbow’s own Kid Nate, Zane Simon and Connor Reubusch break down the Anthony Johnson vs. Phil Davis match up in the video below.