Miles Johns (14-2, 1 NC MMA, 5-2, 1 NC UFC) is “back” in the win column after he defeated Cody Gibson via unanimous decision at the March 23 UFC event held at the Apex in Las Vegas.
Johns would have had a three-fight winning streak going had his win over Dan Argueta not been overturned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after Johns tested positive for turinabol. While the commission changed its threshold for the substance after Johns’ win was overturned to a no-contest, the decision did not impact Johns’ fight retroactively. The no-contest is sandwiched between wins over Gibson and Vince Morales.
Johns, who took the fight on two weeks’ notice, was focused on Gibson during the training camp. He had weight to lose, cardio to sharpen and drills to run so he could nail his game plan. But he had a chip on his shoulder once preparations were made, he said.
“I had something to prove,” Johns told MMASucka. “It feels like I’ve been through one thing after another for the past two years. Maybe a little more than that. I was ready to go in there, get a clean win and show people that I can step up on short notice. Show people that whatever happened with that last fight has nothing to do with who I am and what I’m about. I just wanted to get the momentum back on my side. It should have already been there. This should be a three-fight win streak. Unfortunately, it’s kind of clouded with that. Now I guess it’s started over.”
Johns graded himself a B for his win over Gibson. He felt he followed the game plan well.
“I think people were thinking maybe Gibson didn’t fight his best fight,” he said. “When you look at my fight, Garrett Armfield’s fight [vs. Brad Katona] and Trey Ogden’s fight [vs. Kurt Holobaugh], all of these guys had some momentum behind them going into the fights. Brad Katona did, so did Cody Gibson, and so did Kurt Holobaugh. We pretty much made those fights look easy. So when you make the fight look easy, I think some people think, ‘Oh Brad wasn’t on, oh Cody wasn’t on, oh Kurt wasn’t on.’ But that’s three guys who had some momentum who supposedly weren’t on that night.”
Johns attributes the Marathon Mixed Martial Arts trio’s wins to the “little things” they’re doing, such as faking and feinting and level-changing that has allowed them to shut opponents down.
Johns also feels his power was a key to victory over Gibson.
“He didn’t want anything to do with that,” Johns said. “I had a feeling that would happen. He usually goes forward and makes war in there. But if you’ve noticed in my fights, those wars don’t really happen. I think that’s because when I hit people, it’s a different ballgame. They’re not going to just walk in and pressure me and create wars, because I can put your lights out at any moment.”
The reason for the B grade, Johns said, was because his cardio was not up to par.
“I wasn’t throwing punches in as many combos as I would’ve liked. When I did hurt him, I was letting him off the hook a little bit, and I think that was because of my cardio. I cut 30 pounds in two-and-a-half weeks. No excuses; I took the fight. I think it had a little bit of a toll on me. And so when I did hurt him, I didn’t have the gas tank to stop him, finish him and get him out of there. I think with a six-week camp, I definitely would have finished him.”
Johns out-landed Gibson, hit him with power shots and controlled him in grappling exchanges.
“I felt like we were on different levels. The power was at a completely different level. When I hit him, it hurt him every time, and when he hit me, it didn’t really do anything. I felt like I was in control and kind of cruising through the fight.”
Johns said he would like one or two more wins before fighting a top-15 bantamweight. While Ricky Simon is no longer ranked, Johns said he would like that fight after another win.
“I know that I can fight Ricky Simon and that I’m ready for that fight,” he said. “But there are a lot of guys sitting right outside the rankings who are maybe a little bit tougher than some of the guys in the rankings. So I know that I’ve got to pay my dues and we’ll see what happens. One or two more wins and I imagine I’ll be fighting for a number.”
Johns said he wants to fight Aiemann Zahabi next. Zahabi is on a four-fight win streak.
“I think he’s one of those tough guys who’s sitting right outside the rankings. I would like to get one more fight in before I jump into the rankings. I feel like I’m starting to get a lot better every single fight. Aiemann Zahabi is somebody who’s been on the list. Daniel Santos would be a good one. ‘Willycat,’ I think, because he beat [John] Castaneda and we’ve kind of got to get that back by beating him. Ricky Turcios is up there. He was supposed to have a big fight with Raul Rosas Jr. and that fell through. He’s floating around that division. There are a lot of good fights out there for me, I think.”
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