Johnson has been game since his days as a member of Team GSP on Season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter, where he advanced to the finals before dropping a decision to teammate Jonathan Brookins. In the 15 years between that bout and Saturday’s clash with Hernandez, “The Menace” has faced one of the toughest strengths of schedules you could craft in the lightweight division.
He was the last man to beat Tony Ferguson before “El Cucuy” went on his iconic run towards the top of the weight class. He knocked out Dustin Poirier in 95 seconds in Hidalgo, Texas, prior to “The Diamond” putting things together. He famously battled Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 205 in New York City, welcomed Justin Gaethje to the Octagon for the first time, and after a brief foray to the featherweight ranks, he resumed facing dangerous and talented lightweights as he’s started working his way forward in the division once more.
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“There’s a lot of pride in that, and it’s the one thing I got into this game for was to fight the best of the best, even if I wasn’t ready to fight Khabib at that time or maybe even Nate (Diaz) when I fought Nate; he had a lot of experience going into that fight,” Johnson said of his resume. “Some of these guys had years and years of experience on me back then. Yeah, I could fight, I was tough, but I was lacking the experience and that was the big difference.
“Nonetheless, I still threw myself in there with the best of the best because that’s where I like to judge myself… When it’s all said and done and I do make my way back to the top and I do accomplish what I want to accomplish, nobody can say, ‘Oh, he had it the easy way.’ I was winning and losing for 10 years straight, and it took me 10 years, 16 years to get here.
“Nothing has come easy and that’s one thing I really cherish and really hold onto deep.”
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