UFC lightweight veteran Michael Johnson spoke about his late friend Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in the aftermath of his decision win over Marc Diakiese at UFC Orlando.
‘The Menace’ was moved while talking about the late heavyweight legend who he had been close to since their days at the now-defunct Blackzilians gym.
Johnson admittedly found it hard to watch ‘Rumble’ struggle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in his last days.
The lightweight veteran is now trying to derive solace from not having to watch his friend suffer any longer. The 36-year-old told the media at UFC Orlando:
“I love him bro. I still love him today. Teammates, you know, brothers, good friends, we were roommates and I had to go out there and win for him. To see a guy lose his life at 38, going through the things he went through over the last year, it was just hard to watch and hard to see. Especially a guy like that. I know we say it a lot when it happens to people but he didn’t deserve that.”
Johnson added:
“It’s good to see he’s not suffering the way I watched. If that’s the silver lining you can take out of that.”
Michael Johnson put on a striking clinic to earn a unanimous decision win over Marc Diakese at the UFC Orlando Prelims, bouncing back from a controversial split decision loss to Jamie Mullarkey back in July.
Watch Johnson’s comments on ‘Rumble’ below (2:40):