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"I just want a top-five, top-six opponent to show that I’m worthy of fighting for a championship belt. Most of those guys have already lost to the champion, so if Van goes out there and loses,
who is he going to fight? So I want to throw my name in the cap. It’s only like two guys, Manel Kape and Tatsuro Taira, that I think are ahead of me for an opportunity. If I can go fight
somebody of their caliber."
"I asked for Kai Kara-France, but he dodged me and went into retirement. The fight was booked for Australia FN, and he said no to it, and then masked it with 'I'm taking a year off.' But I mean,
more power to him. I’m a fan of the guy, but he only fights once a year. Who wants to see these guys climbing the ranking by fighting once a year? You look at their records, he’s 8-5 in the
UFC, and he’s been here for eight years. I’m 7-5 in UFC, I’ve been here for three years. I’ve been the most active. I’ve took my losses on the chin. Some of them I felt I won."
"I feel like it’s my time now and these guys who are in the rankings that aren’t going to fight need to go, need to move out the way - or they need to fight, you know? Anybody in the top seven,
I believe, will put me in a position where I can skip the line due to this."
"I’d love to fight one of those guys over five rounds, and if it has to be in the APEX, let’s do it. I mean, it’s hard to do it in an arena, you know? I don’t know if my name is big enough, so if it
has to be APEX, that’s fine. I won’t disappoint. I won’t disappoint in a main event. For me, just give me somebody who you think is somebody that is worthy of that. I would say Tatsuro Taira,
but I think he’s earned a chance at the title if he wins his next fight. He fought two main events already in the APEX, so I think he’s a step ahead of me in that. I’m humble enough to say, yeah,
I got to win one more, maybe two."
His last loss came to Ramazan Temirov who failed a drug test for trimetazidine months after their bout, a drug listed in the class of hormone and metabolic modulators under the UFC anti-doping
policy prohibited list:
"They say he was clean on that night, but as a fighter, I just know guys know how to cycle off, know how to get away with things. And honestly, he was a cheater in fights, like he grabbed inside
of my gloves multiple times in the fight. And in film study before, he did that in other fights. So I told the ref before, and the ref just said to him 'Don’t grab the glove', but it already changes the
grappling sequences when he's done that. So if you can cheat in fights, I know your character, you’re a cheat outside of that cage too. And then it shows that you have, it’s just like... I’m not
surprised, you know?"
"I won four fights in a row, and I did everything I could do, and I lost to a guy who popped for PEDs. And then I went out there and knocked out a young, they were calling him the biggest prospect
in all of MMA, and for me it was just another day of work. And I was excited about each opportunity here."
Aside from the doping failure, it bothers Johnson to have a loss to Temirov on his MMA record because "last 11 minutes of the fight he’s throwing one or two shots and is running away from me.
The whole fight, I feel like I’m gonna get this guy out of here if he fights me, but he doesn’t. He’s throwing big shots and running. Then third round, he just collapses. He’s just tired of shit. This guy
is not championship worthy. I’m better than this guy."
"What can you do but go back to the gym, go back to work, and make sure it doesn’t happen next? I just focus on myself and what can I do better. I’m closing holes, I’m closing little gaps here
and there. I feel like I’m the best in the world, but it’s about performing every time I step in there. And guys are gonna have moments, these are the best fighters in the world. But I feel like Charles
Oliveira, when he was finishing people and just knew he was getting his hand raised, I feel like I can do that.”
who is he going to fight? So I want to throw my name in the cap. It’s only like two guys, Manel Kape and Tatsuro Taira, that I think are ahead of me for an opportunity. If I can go fight
somebody of their caliber."
"I asked for Kai Kara-France, but he dodged me and went into retirement. The fight was booked for Australia FN, and he said no to it, and then masked it with 'I'm taking a year off.' But I mean,
more power to him. I’m a fan of the guy, but he only fights once a year. Who wants to see these guys climbing the ranking by fighting once a year? You look at their records, he’s 8-5 in the
UFC, and he’s been here for eight years. I’m 7-5 in UFC, I’ve been here for three years. I’ve been the most active. I’ve took my losses on the chin. Some of them I felt I won."
"I feel like it’s my time now and these guys who are in the rankings that aren’t going to fight need to go, need to move out the way - or they need to fight, you know? Anybody in the top seven,
I believe, will put me in a position where I can skip the line due to this."
"I’d love to fight one of those guys over five rounds, and if it has to be in the APEX, let’s do it. I mean, it’s hard to do it in an arena, you know? I don’t know if my name is big enough, so if it
has to be APEX, that’s fine. I won’t disappoint. I won’t disappoint in a main event. For me, just give me somebody who you think is somebody that is worthy of that. I would say Tatsuro Taira,
but I think he’s earned a chance at the title if he wins his next fight. He fought two main events already in the APEX, so I think he’s a step ahead of me in that. I’m humble enough to say, yeah,
I got to win one more, maybe two."
His last loss came to Ramazan Temirov who failed a drug test for trimetazidine months after their bout, a drug listed in the class of hormone and metabolic modulators under the UFC anti-doping
policy prohibited list:
"They say he was clean on that night, but as a fighter, I just know guys know how to cycle off, know how to get away with things. And honestly, he was a cheater in fights, like he grabbed inside
of my gloves multiple times in the fight. And in film study before, he did that in other fights. So I told the ref before, and the ref just said to him 'Don’t grab the glove', but it already changes the
grappling sequences when he's done that. So if you can cheat in fights, I know your character, you’re a cheat outside of that cage too. And then it shows that you have, it’s just like... I’m not
surprised, you know?"
"I won four fights in a row, and I did everything I could do, and I lost to a guy who popped for PEDs. And then I went out there and knocked out a young, they were calling him the biggest prospect
in all of MMA, and for me it was just another day of work. And I was excited about each opportunity here."
Aside from the doping failure, it bothers Johnson to have a loss to Temirov on his MMA record because "last 11 minutes of the fight he’s throwing one or two shots and is running away from me.
The whole fight, I feel like I’m gonna get this guy out of here if he fights me, but he doesn’t. He’s throwing big shots and running. Then third round, he just collapses. He’s just tired of shit. This guy
is not championship worthy. I’m better than this guy."
"What can you do but go back to the gym, go back to work, and make sure it doesn’t happen next? I just focus on myself and what can I do better. I’m closing holes, I’m closing little gaps here
and there. I feel like I’m the best in the world, but it’s about performing every time I step in there. And guys are gonna have moments, these are the best fighters in the world. But I feel like Charles
Oliveira, when he was finishing people and just knew he was getting his hand raised, I feel like I can do that.”
