UFC on Versus 6 will feature a bantamweight title fight between champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson. The fight is no doubt the biggest and most important of Johnson's career...or at least that's what most would think.
However, for Johnson, nothing is further from the truth. "I’m looking at it as any other fight," Johnson said at the UFC on Versus 6 media call that BleacherReport.com was present for.
"It’s a great opportunity that the UFC has given to me and I’m going to try and take full advantage of the opportunity," he said.
Johnson then offered an insightful reason as to why he's not making a big deal mentally about the fight, saying, "There’s two outcomes. Dominick Cruz can outright destroy me…and I lose a title fight and go back to the gym and get ready for the next fight and keep on going or I go out there and put on a fantastic show and go back home and enjoy my life and go back to the gym and get ready for the next fight.
"So either way, it is what it is…I just gotta go out there and be the best Mighty Mouse on October 1 and just go out there and perform and see what happens."
This nonchalant attitude does not mean that Johnson isn't taking the champion Cruz seriously. "I've made a lot of adjustments in my style in training and preparing for Dominick," he said. In fact, "Mighty Mouse" has even enlisted the help of an aptly nicknamed training partner to help him.
"Everyone goes 'Man it’s so hard to prepare for somebody like Dominick,'" Johnson said. "One of my coaches who teaches me all my footwork and the style I do, I’ve been sparring him and he has watched like 15 hours of footage of Dominick and we call him the 'Black Dominick' in the gym because when I come in he’ll start imitating Dominick and I’ll spar him."
While this seems rigorous and difficult, training has been easier than ever Johnson since he stopped fighting while holding a full-time job in construction.
"I was working 40 hours a week; I barely got any rest," he remembered. "I’d get off of work at three, be at the gym at like four o’clock, work out till like 6:30 and then wake up and do it all over again."
Johnson continued on, saying "I’d get home on Sunday it wasn’t like 'Whoo let’s party come on!' it was like 'I gotta get up and go to work the next morning at six o’clock.' When I broke my leg against Miguel Torres, I was at work that Monday."
Despite the fact that Johnson can finally devote his full heart and soul to a proper training camp, he is still an underdog but to him, it's nothing new. "Every fight I’ve come into I’ve been the underdog and it doesn’t bother me at all. I plan on going there and putting on a great fight for the UFC and for the fans. I’m looking forward to getting in there with Dominick and showing the world what I got."
Perhaps what keeps Johnson so humble are his training partners that push him and test him daily.
"All the guys I train with are bigger than me and they’re better than me," he said. "I’m always fighting for my life when I’m training. I’m not in there running those guys into the ground, they’re running me into the ground and I have to pick myself and be like 'Alright, let’s do it again, show me what you got.'"
The whole process of becoming a full-time fighter, fighting for a title and training with world-class training partners hasn't spoiled Johnson, who is just happy to be where he is. "I’m just grateful to be a full-time fighter...I’m going to go out there and try to make a name for myself and just stick it to ‘em." He'll have his chance on October 1.
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