Anthony Johnson Admits Fighting Gegard Mousasi Was Too ‘Risky’

No. 1-ranked UFC light heavyweight contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson was scheduled to rematch 205-pound champion Daniel Cormier in the main event of Dec. 10’s UFC 206 from Toronto, Canada, but Cormier was unfortunately forced to withdraw from the bout with an injury.

The plan was initially to keep Johnson on the card and the UFC even offered him an interim light heavyweight title bout against surging middleweight contender and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi. “Rumble”, however, recently admitted that the bout was simply too ‘risky’ to accept:

“No, not at all. I didn’t interest me at all,” said Johnson on a recent appearance on The MMA Hour.

“When Gegard was presented to me, it would’ve been a good fight, but it wouldn’t have done anything for me,” said Anthony. “Fighting him and becoming the interim champion, as much trash as I’ve talked and ‘DC’ has talked about interim titles being fake champions, if I would have beat him, it wouldn’t mean anything.”

“And if I had lost, I would have to start from scratch. It was just too risky.”

Since first losing to Cormier at UFC 187, Johnson has scored three straight stoppage wins and he will now wait for Cormier to heal to receive his title shot. While he likely would’ve prefered the fight to take place in a few weeks, “Rumble” admitted that he wasn’t too disappointed with Cormier:

“I was disappointed, but I didn’t take it to heart because he is actually hurt. It’s not like he just popped a rib or twisted his ankle; the man is actually hurt. It didn’t bother me too bad,” Johnson said.

Do you agree with Johnson’s decision?