Ryan Bader's coach, Aaron Simpson, thinks Anthony Johnson is a very good fighter. But Simpson also thinks Johnson has a tendency to break inside the cage in part because of mental weakness.
Just days before Bader and Johnson face off on Saturday in the main event of UFC on Fox 18, Simpson offered plenty of respect to Rumble but suggested that Johnson may be prone to folding once he gets tired or finds himself at a disadvantage in a fight.
"We know that Anthony gets tired," Simpson told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour (h/t Danny Segura of MMA Fighting). "We know he's got that bully mentality. He's a freak when he can be, man. He is very dangerous, and that's evident. [But] Daniel Cormier outlasted [Johnson] because he knew was going to be tougher than him. So that's the same mentality Bader has."
A D-1 wrestling All-American, Bader (21-4) has been winning fights in the UFC for years but never seems to get over the proverbial hump with a big win.
A win on Saturday would certainly qualify as that, as Johnson (20-5) is one of the most feared knockout artists in the entire sport. UFC President Dana White recently indicated that Bader would be next in line for a UFC light heavyweight title shot if he can defeat Johnson.
Simpson, himself a former college wrestler and UFC fighter, gave a detailed response when Helwani asked why he believed Johnson was mentally weak:
Once that's in you, once you've quit and you've done it, it's in you," Simpson said. "It's hard to get past that. It's hard to be someone who, when the going gets tough or you're on your back or you're on your knees and you're starting to get tired, you can come back from that.
...
You can see in someone like Daniel Cormier, that he has no quit in him. He was fighting up a hill there against [Alexander] Gustafsson. He doesn't have quit in him. But you see that in Anthony Johnson, and that's going to be exploited on the 30th.
Bader is currently on a five-fight win streak inside the cage. Most recently, he handled Rashad Evans by decision in October, and before that he bested Phil Davis by decision in January.
Coach: Anthony Johnson has been a quitter his entire career, even as far back as college: Ouch. Ryan Bader wil... https://t.co/x90qEOyFzK
— Nicki (@MaxxFight) January 28, 2016
The 31-year-old Johnson has won 10 of his last 11, including four out of five in his current stint with the UFC. In May, he lost by third-round submission in a title bout with Cormier, an Olympic wrestler who pressured Johnson and pressed him against the cage, tiring Johnson while preventing him from launching his powerful strikes.
Johnson has 14 of his 20 professional wins by way of knockout.
