To think that Anthony Johnson ever made 170, let alone thrived in the welterweight division for a period of time is absolutely wild. This is a guy, who in 1993, would’ve probably been fighting in what would’ve been called the ‘heavyweight’ division, was cutting to 170 and damn near killing himself doing it. I mean, hell, remember when he couldn’t make 185 against Vitor?
Either way, Phil Davis needed an opponent, so Anthony Johnson was welcomed back into the UFC to fight in the light heavyweight division, which makes me happy because he’s a talented fighter who can be a decent opponent for just about anyone.
And Phil Davis really needed an opponent.
MMARoasted, AKA Adam Hunter, got the scoop:
“Well, I went out to New Jersey for the last UFC to support my teammate, Abel Trujillo, and you know, show my face and stuff in the crowd and my manager met with Joe Silva during breakfast and Joe Silva and my manager Glen Robinson were eating at a table on the other side of the restaurant and me, my coaches and Abel were on the opposite side.
Glen called me and said ‘Hey come over here’, so I went over and as soon as I sat down he said ‘congratulations, welcome back to the UFC’. So I looked at Joe Silva, and Joe Silva had this big-ass smile on his face, stuck his hand out and I shook his hand and said ‘thank you’, that was basically it.
My manager asked me when would I want to fight, and I was like ‘soon as possible’ then he started putting a few dates out there and I didn’t feel like fighting those dates, then he said April, so I was like ‘I’m down with that’.
They brought up Phil Davis, and I was like ‘I’ll fight whoever it is, I don’t care you know, it’s just another human being in-front of me, he does the same thing that I do and I know I do it better, so put me up against whoever you want to put me up against’. You know, so now it’s official, I’m fighting Phil, I just wasn’t sure at first.”