Former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson had a tough challenge ahead of him when he faced off against reigning champion Daniel Cormier in their highly anticipated rematch. The fighter faced a submission loss to Cormier in their first match up, but not much changed the second time the fighter’s stepped inside the octagon.
This time around, Johnson suffered yet another submission loss to Daniel Cormier by way of rear-naked choke. However, something rather unfortunate happened from outside of the cage during their UFC 210 main event rematch.
Striking coach Henri Hooft was seemingly unhappy with the performance of Anthony Johnson at the night’s event, as the coach could not be found after the fighter’s second submission loss to Cormier.
Here is a transcript of Johnson’s corner from the fight:
Round 1
Voice: Take your time. Nice. Take your time. Don’t take him down.
Hooft: Don’t wrestle him.
Voice: If you’re going to go, go single.
Hooft: You don’t have to wrestle him, AJ. Just relax.
Voice: Don’t wrestle him.
Hooft: Get out of there. Get out of there.
Grappling coach Neil Melanson: OK, stud. Now, let’s get your hands hot.
Voice: Why is he wrestling him?
Hooft: This is stupid.
Voice: Why is he wrestling him?
Hooft: (Expletive) it, man. Just get off the cage.
Voice: Get out of there.
Voice: Why isn’t he listening?
(Johnson and Cormier are broken up by referee John McCarthy, and Johnson lands kicks.)
Voice: He’s tired already, DC. He doesn’t need to do this.
Voice: Why isn’t he listening?
Hooft: I don’t know why he’s doing that. We have no (expletive) eyes.
Break between Round 1 and Round 2
Hooft: Can you tell me why you’re wrestling? Now, you’re not going to wrestle. You take your distance. Stay away, two steps away. Why are you so worried about everything? The kicks and the knees are really good, but no kicks. Where’s your hands?
Voice: You’re doing great. Don’t (expletive) wrestle him.
Hooft: If you stand your distance, it’s an easy game. Why make it difficult?
Round 2
Hooft: Movement. Athletic. Movement. That’s it. Take your distance.
(Johnson reverses against the cage and goes for another takedown)
Hooft: You need distance.
Hooft: I’m not saying nothing.
(Cormier has Johnson on the mat and is setting up a choke)
Hooft: It’s going the same as last time.
(Johnson submits to Cormier via rear-naked choke)
Hooft: Why, why the (expletive) does this happen every (expletive) time, man? Crazy.
Johnson then attempted to find his striking coach directly after the loss, but could not locate the trainer. Still, “Rumble” revealed that he would be retiring from the sport of MMA to the crowd of fight fans.
Speaking on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, Hooft would later reveal the reasoning for his actions.
“I said, I know it’s hard. It’s already done. I said, ‘Keep your head up’”, explained Hooft as he broke down his dialogue after the fight between himself and his fighter.
“Then, I stepped off and walked away because the cage was crowded. Then I’m backstage and heard that he was retiring, and I was like ‘Oh shit’.”
When the two met backstage Hooft says they embraced and there was no hard feelings or ill will.
“We held eachother and cried backstage.”
“… It’s been difficult for all of us… We were just hoping that this was the next thing for us. It was just hard, but he was very dissapointed and I was very dissapointed as a coach. “
“I’ve never left a fighter… It’s all bullsh*t.”
“I just feel bummed because I wanted to end this one with the title and he has all the qualities to do it and just didn’t do it.”
Now a video of Johnson’s match up against Daniel Cormier featuring audio from the fighter’s corner has made its way onto the internet. Check it out in the video below:
