Despite his age and the amount of time he’s been involved in the sport, lightweight mainstay Michael Johnson appears to still have a lot left in the tank as a competitor. Picking up his second victory in a row last Saturday at UFC on ESPN 63 with a viral knockout over Ottman Azaitar, Johnson (23-19 MMA, 15-15 UFC) ends 2024 with a perfect 2-0 in the win column, having also bested Darrius Flowers back in February.
Engaging in a non-stop firefight with Azaitar throughout the contest, Johnson emphatically closed out the preliminaries by delivering a thudding right hook that put “Bulldozer” out cold. The stoppage also netted “The Menace” his first win streak in more than six years since taking decision performances against Andre Fili and Artem Lobov at featherweight in 2018.
Michael Johnson Still Has Gas in the Tank
Although he is inching closer to the 40 year mark, Johnson still believes he has many more fights ahead of him. In his post-fight press conference, the Kill Cliff FC product detailed how long he thinks he will be staying in the game, “Five years, ten years, I mean I always tell people I want to do eight to 10 more years and they look at me with this face. But, I’m like I’m not slowing down any time soon,” Michael Johnson said.
“Like, as long as my body’s healthy and I can get through what I need to get through, I’m going to fight for as long as I can.”
Could a Rematch Between Michael Johnson and Justin Gaethje Be In the Offing?
Johnson also went on to suggest who he would like to face in his next trip to the cage; an opponent from his past that handed him his own popular knockout defeat. “The Justin Gaethje fight, that’s the one that I want,” he said. “I think everybody would love a Gaethje-Johnson 2. I gave him that opportunity when he came over when nobody else wanted to. So, I think he should go ahead and give that back. We need to run one ’cause I know he knows he got away with that one.”
Back in 2017, Johnson was known as one of the top contenders in the 155-lb division. The then top-19 ranked slugger had achieved several key victories on his quest for the title, including Joe Lauzon, Edson Barboza, Tony Ferguson, and Dustin Poirier.
Coming off a loss to eventual champion and hall-of-famer Khabib Nurmagomedov, Johnson had the honor of welcoming a debuting Gaethje, who had previously won the World Series of Fighting lightweight strap and defended it five times. What resulted was an instant classic, with both elite strikers rocking each other at several points, until Gaethje managed to find the mark in the second round to put Johnson’s lights out.
While fans would salivate at the chance to see these two run it back, the possibility of that meeting happening is rather slim, as Gaethje is currently nestled into the division’s top three, and Johnson still has more work to do before he reaches contender status once more. Still, it would not be the first time an unranked fighter was matched up with a top-5 representative.
