Anthony Johnson thinking about moving to middleweight possible after knee injury

It looks like the Anthony Johnson vs John “Doomsday” Howard rivalry may once again have to wait for another rescheduled date if “Rumble” decides to move up to the 185 pound weight limit.

According to a interview with Johnson’s manager, Ken Pavia did with MMAJunkie.com, “Rumble” may have put on too much weight after his recent knee injury to make the 170 pound limit for welterweight fighters.
“He has to maintain a very diligent cardio routine to stay in striking range of 170 (pounds),” Johnson’s manager, Ken Pavia, today told MMAjunkie.com “Because of his knee injury, his weight has gotten up a little bit, and we don’t want to delay his comeback because of a weight issue. So we’re entertaining the possibility of taking a fight at 185 (pounds).”

According to Pavia, Johnson has to cut so much weight at the moment that he may be bigger then light heavyweight fighter Tito Ortiz, who weights over 205 pounds. Pavia also said that Johnson would normally cut more then 50 pounds to make the welterweight division.
“Anthony Johnson is one of our more solid light heavyweights right now,” Pavia said today. “I’m pretty sure he’s bigger than Tito (Ortiz).”

Pavia pointed out that UFC match maker Joe Silva has even questioned Johnson’s possible move to the middleweight division.
“[UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva has a couple rules that he lives by, one of which is he’ll never tell a fighter what weight to fight at, and he’ll never make a fighter fight injured,” Pavia said. “And he’ll tell you that over and over again.
“That being said, the last time he saw [Johnson], he turned to me and said, ‘C’mon, dude.’ So that’s one of the reasons we’re entertaining an [185 pound] fight. It’s not for sure yet.”

When Johnson missed weight by over five pounds at UFC 104 last year, there was speculation that he came into the Octagon weighing anywhere from 195 to 200 pounds for his fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida. As Joe Rogan pointed out, Johnson’s knockout victory was unfair because he was a light heavyweight fighter against a welterweight. What makes it worse is that Yoshida is considered a small welterweight fighter and probably should fight at the 155 pound weight limit.

Since then Johnson’s ability to make the 170 pound limit has always been questioned, and it was a matter of time until he had to make the jump to 185 pounds as a permanently.

Props: urdirt.com