Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson is back in training and is aiming to make his return to Octagon action in the summer of 2020.
“I’m trying to get my slim on, you know what I mean?” Johnson told ‘The Mac Life’. “I was up to probably 280 and that was the worst I’ve ever been. That’s the worst anyone’s ever gonna see me and I’ll never be back up there again. But I needed it to happen. I needed to hit rock bottom as far as the way I was, going to the gym and taking care of myself. Going to the gym since I was eight, it can take a lot of wear and tear on any human being, so I’m glad I took the break that I took.
“I’m coming back now and I feel a lot better, my punches are stronger, harder, faster. The other day my coach said, ‘AJ, you’re still dangerous.’ He walked up to me after – this was the second time he saw me spar, because he’s been gone – he came up to me and said, ‘AJ, you’re still dangerous. You’re still very fast and punch hard.’ I’ve knocked out two people already in training in the first two days of sparring so I feel like everything is clicking.”
Johnson went on to state that he’s targeting a weight of around 240lbs for his return to give him a good balance between size, speed and power.
“Right now I feel good being at 240. If I were to fight right now at heavyweight for 240, I’d feel just fine. I feel like I still have my strength. I’m definitely not going to be one of the bigger heavyweight guys, there’s some monsters at heavyweight, but my advantage would probably be speed over a majority of those guys. Everybody at heavyweight for the most part has power but I think I’m much faster than those guys and I’ll probably have a little bit more knockout power. Don’t take that from me, I’m just saying.
“Those guys at heavyweight are amazing. I look forward to fighting all of them.”
However, ‘Rumble’ says that there’s still a few more things to be ironed out with the UFC before he can go into the manditory six month USADA testing process prior to his comeback fight.
“We have to meet with the UFC some more. We have to go over things and just figure some stuff out but it’s all looking good so far. Nothing bad. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth and say too much but everything’s looking good right now. I’m not worried.”
