LOS ANGELES – Anyone who has seen Anthony Johnson throw down knows you could call him the “scariest mother (expletive).”
But “Rumble” wouldn’t be interested in wearing an “SMF” belt, nor the “BMF” belt that will be claimed by whoever takes the UFC 244 main event between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz at Madison Square Garden next month.
Johnson is coming out of retirement, and as far as he’s concerned, Masvidal and Diaz can have their little gimmick belt, because he’s going after the real thing when he returns and wants to work his way to a shot at the UFC heavyweight belt now held by Stipe Miocic.
“Save that (expletive) for them little dudes,” Johnson told MMA Junkie at Tuesday’s Dominance MMA media day. “If I’m gonna fight for a title, It’s going to be the title that’s going to count, and that’s the heavyweight title. And that’s it. I don’t want any of these fake-ass ‘BMF,’ ‘SMF’ or whatever the (expletive) you want to call that (expletive). I just want to fight for the real title.”
The 35-year-old Johnson, who has fought as light as welterweight, is a two-time light heavyweight title challenger. In that division, he came up short twice to former champion Daniel Cormier. Johnson announced his retirement following his second loss to Cormier at UFC 210.
But he recently announced his intention to return, and at Tuesday’s media day indicated he hopes to return by April. But it won’t be for any one-off belts.
“How are you going to act like you win the ‘BMF’ or something – how are you going to go home to your kids and be like, ‘You know what? I won one title: Bad Mother(expletive)’?'” Johnson said. “But at the end of the day, they’re going to say the bad mother (expletive) is going to be the champion, right? So that (expletive) is imaginary. It’s trash.”
