Shortly after his submission loss to light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 210, Anthony Johnson surprised the combat sports world by announcing his retirement from MMA.
“This was my last fight,” a teary eyed Johnson said post fight. “I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t even tell Dana White. My coaches knew, my family knew and my friends knew. I didn’t want any distractions. But I have to thank you all for being there for me.”
Having watched last night’s UFC Nashville card, which saw a pair of grizzled veterans get brutally knocked out, Johnson took to Facebook to implore his peers to know when it’s time to hang up the gloves.
“Watched some of the fights last night and I’ll tell you this,” he said. “Know when to hang em up! If you’ve already been knocked out in about your last 5-6 fights isn’t that your body saying ‘I’ve had enough?’ I get that it’s a macho, I have bigger balls than you sport, but man some of these dudes are going to forget their name by the time they’re 45. Good luck with that…”
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See Johnson’s post below:
While Johnson doesn’t reference anyone specifically in this post, he seems to be referencing Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, who were knocked senseless by much younger fighters in Mike Perry and Al Iaquinta respectively.
With his loss to Perry, Ellenberger is now 4-8 in his last 12, with four of his losses coming by way of knockout or TKO. Sanchez, meanwhile, experienced his first real knockout at the hands of Iaquinta, but was recently TKO’d by Joe Lauzon, and has been involved in a long list of brain-rattling slobber-knockers over the course of his career.
What do you think of this comment from Anthony Johnson? Is it time for some of the UFC Nashville losers to retire? Sound off, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/23/2017.