Michael Johnson (38-USA) is a mixed martial arts veteran with 14 wins in the world’s largest organization, the UFC. With 15 losses, he has a 48.3% winning percentage, but he is a devastating fighter who has most often put active lightweight (-70 kg) fighters on the floor of the Octagon.
Even his most intimidating strikes can only be used while standing. Michael Johnson ranks fourth in takedown defense success rate (81.2%) out of 96 UFC lightweight fighters. A hard hitter who doesn’t get taken down easily. This is the kind of opponent you really want to avoid in a mixed martial arts match.
But Michael Johnson didn’t come from a kickboxing or professional boxing background. He turned to mixed martial arts after wrestling for the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I St. Louis Meramec campus.
“It was coach Henry Hoft (55-Netherlands), who I met in 2011 in South Florida, USA, at the Blackzillion training center, who showed me some amazing techniques,” Michael Johnson told MK Sports. He made me fall in love with mixed martial arts,” he said.
After studying abroad in Southeast Asia in his late teens, Henry Hoft developed his own system, combining the best of Thai Muay Thai and Dutch kickboxing. Based on the trials and tribulations of more than 100 fights, he has only been active as an instructor since 2008.
He has trained one kickboxing world champion and six UFC champions, including Tyroner Spong (39-Netherlands), Kamaru Usman (37-Nigeria/USA), Eddie Alvarez (40), Luke Rockhold (40), Robbie Roller (42), Rashad Evans (45-USA), and Vitor Beaufort (47-Brazil).
Michael Johnson followed Henry Hoft to the Kill Cliffs training camp he founded in Deerfield Beach, Florida, in 2017. “I fell in love with striking, and I love brawling. That’s why I have the most takedowns of any active UFC lightweight,” he explained.
Camaru Usman, the 12-time UFC welterweight (-77 kg) champion 토토사이트 from 2019-2022, knows and appreciates Michael Johnson’s explosiveness at the top of the lightweight division. The intense sparring between the Henry Hoffman protégés has been viralized on video.
“I was his main training partner,” Johnson said. I was a peer, pushing him to become a UFC champion. Of course, Usman also pushed me to the limit. We always had good training sessions,” he recalled.
Kamaru Usman won the 2010 NCAA Division II national championship at -79 kilograms while wrestling for the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He is closely related to Michael Johnson, who is similar in age and went through the same amateur ranks.
According to the UFC’s official rankings, Michael Johnson was a top-15 lightweight from 2013-2018. Kamaru Usman left “Kill Cliff” at the end of 2020, but the relationship was somewhat restored in 2022.