Anthony Johnson is an up and coming welterweight fighter currently competing for the UFC. An incredible athlete, Johnson is a massive welterweight who has admitted to cutting from over 220 pounds for fights and has had difficulties making weight in the past. Johnson possesses exceptional speed, quickness and explosive raw power, and his natural physical tools easily rank amongst the best in the division. On his feet Johnson displays excellent hand speed and incredible punching power, and has quickly been garnering attention for his ability to render opponents unconscious with spectacular highlight reel knockouts (see bouts with Chad Reiner, Tommy Speer, Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Kevin Burns). At 6'2" Johnson is also a very tall welterweight who enjoys a significant reach advantage over most others in the division, and physically he is the complete package as far as size and athleticism go. In addition to his boxing, Johnson makes good use of quick leg kicks, powerful head kicks, shows good instincts in the clinch and is a threat to finish the fight anywhere and anytime the fight takes place on the feet. Training with renowned sanshou fighter and former Strikerforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le, Johnson has looked increasingly more composed with his striking as he's gained experience and possesses all the tools necessary to develop into a phenomenal mixed martial arts striker. Although he is best known to casual observers for his striking prowess, Johnson actually had a strong wrestling base prior to getting his start in the sport and is a former National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA) Wrestling Champion - the same championship that jump started the stellar NCAA Division I wrestling careers of both Brock Lesnar and Matt Hughes. Johnson has shown he's able to get the fight to the ground with good takedowns, and at the same time has also proven to be very difficult to take down himself. While he does train his BJJ under one of the most respected jiu jitsu practitioners in the world in Rigan Machado, Johnson's submissions and submission defense have been called into question and his cardio and conditioning have also been a point of concern in the past. Johnson has not looked great fighting off his back and his technical ground skill and guard game will definitely need to be improved. Those ground skills and his conditioning issues likely played roles in both Johnson's losses against Rich Clementi (who normally fights at lightweight) and Josh Koscheck. Clementi was able to weather Johnson's early pressure before eventually getting the fight to the ground and submitting him, and Koscheck was able to put Johnson on his back, wear him down and eventually tap him out. Johnson has shown more polish in his overall game as he's gained experience, and does possess all the tools necessary to develop into a complete mixed martial artist.