When Anthony Johnson took to Facebook last night with a rant targeting, “the ugly girl in the gym built like a bag of dry dog food” it’s hard to know if he realized just what lens his description of events would be viewed through. While his rant came off largely as threatening and patronizing in it’s own right, given his history with a domestic violence conviction and further accusations, his threats of even something as simple as dumping someone off a yoga mat and throwing it across the room took a somewhat more sinister tone.
Someone with a history of assault making a public show of threatening someone in the gym isn’t quite as easily dismissed as it might be for others. And while Johnson initially seemed happy to defend his actions on social media, he’s now issued a public apology via MMAJunkie:
“I shouldn’t have gotten that upset from the start but I did, I mean I’m human,” Johnson wrote. “I said some pretty nasty things about a female from my gym while full of emotions (not a good idea) so I do wanna apologize to her for being rude as I was and not taking a break to relax after our argument.
“Sorry to everyone else too for having to witness me getting upset about a argument in the gym. I’m not going to sugarcoat it and make it seem like I’m a angel because I’m not but I will admit when I’m wrong. Other than that I hope everybody has a awesome day.”
It would be something of a surprise if the UFC decided to punish Johnson for this Facebook post. But, even with a solid public apology his conduct serves as something of a reminder that the UFC and combat sports in general doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to promoting or punishing athletes with a history of violent conduct outside the cage.
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