Michael Johnson (fighter) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Michael Johnson is an American

People of the United States

The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...

mixed martial artist

Mixed martial arts

Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...

(MMA) who competes in the lightweight

Lightweight (MMA)

The lightweight division in mixed martial arts can refer to a number of different weight classes:* The UFC & Strikeforce lightweight division with upper limit at 155 lb...

division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Johnson mostly competed in his regional circuit, before signing onto the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport...

Background

Johnson began fighting at the age of 10, after his father's fatal heart attack. The incident made Johnson want to exert his anger physically. Johnson later said, "I lost something, a huge part of me....Fighting was my way of not dealing with my dad's passing. Now that I think of it, of course, it was the wrong thing to do, especially putting all that burden on my mom having to deal with it."

Johnson trains at Springfield Fight Club, which is an affiliate of Gracie Barra

Gracie Barra

Gracie Barra is one of the largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu associations, with over 400 black belts and 150 schools or affiliates worldwide. It is headed by Carlos Gracie, Jr., son of Carlos Gracie the first Gracie to ever learn Jiu-Jitsu from Japanese emigrant to Brazil Otávio Mitsuyo Maeda.- History...

based in Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...

. Johnson also works there as the assistant mixed martial arts coach.

Johnson is a former Midwest Fight League & Xtreme Cage Fighting champion who won those titles in July 2008 and October 2009 respectively.

One of Johnson's victories on the local circuit in Missouri is a unanimous decision win over Ramiro Hernandez Jr. in a 150 lb catchweight bout. Johnson also fought Joe Brammer

Joe Brammer

Joseph Brammer is an American mixed martial artist.-MMA career:He is currently 7-3-1 as a professional and was previously signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championships . He is an accomplished grappler, with five of his wins coming by submission...

and James Krause

James Krause

James Krause is a professional footballer who currently plays for Cambridge City.Krause, a defender, began his career with Ipswich Town and has represented England at under-17 level....

, losing both matches by submission. The fights against Krause and Brammer came consecutively and represented Johnson's only two-fight losing streak prior to joining the UFC. The first fight, against Krause, came at "FM - Productions" in November 2008, where Johnson was a promotional veteran. Unfortunately for Johnson, the fight ended quickly, as Krause secured a submission in under three minutes. In March 2009, Johnson returned for the Brammer fight, which he also lost via submission, this time to a guillotine choke in the fourth round of their title fight.

Prior to joining the UFC, Johnson went on a three fight winning streak.

The Ultimate Fighter

Johnson then signed onto the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport...

circuit to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck
The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck
The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck is the twelfth installment of the Ultimate Fighting Championship produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter....

.

Johnson's entry onto the show was, in part, due to his persistence in attending tryouts for the show. After making the final interview round of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir is the eighth installment of the Ultimate Fighting Championship produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, which went into production in late May 2008 and premiered on September 17, 2008 on Spike TV...

, Johnson was told that he wasn't the right fit for the show. Johnson then tried out for the ninth season of the show, before finally becoming accepted onto the twelfth season after telling the producers, "I've been getting tired of chasing you [expletive] around the country. I'm here; I'm not going to go anywhere. If you guys don't pick me, I'm going to try out again." Finally, Johnson was signed.

Johnson's first fight took place on the debut episode of the season, where he faced unbeaten Pablo Garza

Pablo Garza (fighter)

Pablo Garza is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Featherweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2007, Garza mostly competed in his regional circuit before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs....

. In an "impressive performance", Johnson scored a unanimous decision victory, which moved him into the house.

In the second episode, both St-Pierre and Koscheck had Johnson at the top of their lists when it came time to select fighters. During the team selection process however, St-Pierre created a fake list which did not have Johnson among his top selections, and subtlely showed it to Koscheck to fool him into believing it. This seemed to manipulate Koscheck into picking Marc Stevens, as he may have believed he could take Johnson later. This allowed St-Pierre to choose Johnson with the second overall pick.

Johnson competed in his preliminary round matchup against Aaron Wilkinson

Aaron Wilkinson

Aaron Wilkinson is an English professional mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Wilkinson mostly competed in the English domestic circuit, before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear on The Ultimate Fighter:...

in the third episode. After some early striking exchanges in the first round, Wilkinson was able to take Johnson down and utilise ground-and-pound punches and elbows. In the second round, Johnson landed an early superman punch, as well as a takedown. After takedowns were achieved by both men, Johnson stuffed a final attempt and took the second round on the judges scorecards. In the sudden victory round, Johnson attacked quickly. He took Wilkinson down before he could react, and began landing heavy punches on him, then eventually secured his back, which allowed him to end the fight via a rear naked choke.

Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...

was in attendance, and later said Johnson's speed won the fight, though he felt Wilkinson was the better boxer. Josh Koscheck

Josh Koscheck

Josh D. Koscheck is an American mixed martial artist from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, a former collegiate wrestling champion and is currently fighting at welterweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He made his debut with the organization on the first season of the reality television show,...

also claimed that the fight should not have gone to the third round, since he believes Wilkinson won the opening two.

In episode 8, Team GSP had to pick which team members would fight each other (considering they had 5 members in the quarter-finals). St. Pierre asked each member to pick the fighter they wanted to fight. Johnson and Alex Caceres

Alex Caceres

Alex Caceres is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight divisions. A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Caceres mostly competed in his regional circuit, before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championships to appear on...

picked each other and a fight was scheduled. Johnson won by unanimous decision after two rounds, earning himself a spot in the semi-finals.

In the final round, Johnson faced the one remaining Team Koscheck member, Nam Phan

Nam Phan

Nam Phan is an American mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight and lightweight divisions. He was a competitor on The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck...

. In a back-and-forth fight, Johnson scored takedowns. The consensus after the fight was that Johnson won the opening round, and Phan the second. The third was in dispute however, with each fighter's coach convinced they had won the round. Johnson was declared the winner via split decision.

Ultimate Fighting Championships

Johnson made his UFC debut in the The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs Team Koscheck Finale, also referred to as The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on December 4, 2010.-Background:This was the first...

against Jonathan Brookins

Jonathan Brookins

Jonathan Brookins is a mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight and lightweight divisions. A professional MMA competitor since 2006, Brookins has mostly fought in Florida, as well as competing in The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck...

. That fight determined the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 12. After an impressive first round, Johnson lost rounds two and three — and subsequently the fight — via unanimous decision, leaving him the runner-up. After the loss, Johnson moved his camp to Jackson's Submission Fighting in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

.

Johnson was looking to take a fight outside of the UFC before returning to the promotion. The fight was to headline the North American Fighting Championship card against Jim Bleau. However, after obtaining a UFC fight, Johnson pulled out of the NAFC bout to focus his training on the UFC bout. Johnson faced Eddie Faaloloto

Eddie Faaloloto

Edward Faaloloto is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. Faaloloto has fought foe the UFC and WEC has gone 0-3 overall in both promotions.-Early life:...

on June 26, 2011 at UFC on Versus 4 and won the fight via TKO in the first round.

Johnson faced Paul Sass

Paul sass

Paul Sass is an English mixed martial artist. He lives in Liverpool, training with Next Generation MMA and Team Kaobon.-Early career:Sass' professional MMA record stands at 12-0, with 8 of the victories by triangle choke...

on October 1, 2011 at UFC on Versus 6. He lost the fight via submission in the first round.

Mixed martial arts record

Paul sass

| Submission (heel hook)
| UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson

UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson

UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on October 1, 2011 at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C.-Background:...

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, United States
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|Win
|align=center|9-5
|Eddie Faaloloto

Eddie Faaloloto

Edward Faaloloto is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter. Faaloloto has fought foe the UFC and WEC has gone 0-3 overall in both promotions.-Early life:...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

Jonathan Brookins

|Decision (unanimous)
|The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck Finale

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

Springfield, Missouri

Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas and is the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the "Unified...

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri

Lake Ozark, Missouri

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,489 people, 649 households, and 427 families residing in the city. The population density was 211.6 people per square mile . There were 1,143 housing units at an average density of 162.4 per square mile...

Joe Brammer

Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

James Krause (fighter)

James Krause is an American mixed martial artist. A veteran of WEC's lightweight division, he suffered his first loss in his WEC debut against Donald Cerrone at WEC 41...

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri

Columbia, Missouri

Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...

Urbandale, Iowa

Urbandale is a city in Polk and Dallas counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 29,072; a special census taken by the city in 2005 counted 35,904 residents and the United States Census Bureau estimated that 38,369 residents lived there in 2008...

Springfield, Missouri

Springfield, Missouri

, United States
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External links

Official UFC Profile

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