Anthony Johnson reveals the one fight that got away during his time in the UFC

Following his exit from the UFC, former light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Johnson revealed the one fight that got away from him.

Johnson recently left the UFC to sign a free-agent contract with Bellator. Considering his last fight took place in 2017, it was surprising to see Johnson announce his comeback with Bellator seemingly out of nowhere. UFC president Dana White recently said that he would let Johnson explain why he left the promotion, and he did just that in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday. He also was asked if he had any regrets about his time with the UFC.

In Johnson’s view, he accomplished much of what he set out to do in the UFC, but there was always one fight missing from his professional record. That was a fight against former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. With Jones now at heavyweight and Johnson at Bellator, the ship has sailed on that fight. In Johnson’s view, that’s the one that got away.

Rumble says Bones is the one fight that got away during his UFC run.

(via @bokamotoESPN) pic.twitter.com/m82InvicIe

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 17, 2020

“Jon Jones was the reason I went up to 205lbs. Being able to fight the pound-for-pound No. 1 guy ever at 205, that’s an honor to be able to compete against somebody like that,” Johnson told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.

For fight fans, Jones vs. Johnson was a fight that everyone wanted to see from about 2015 to 2017. Unfortunately, the fight never happened due to bad timing. During this period, Jones was suspended several times and lost his belt. He missed a considerable amount of cage time and the UFC was never able to get him in the Octagon against Johnson. Instead, Daniel Cormier was the light heavyweight champion for much of this time period and Johnson fought him twice, losing both of those fights by rear-naked choke submission.

Do you think we will ever one day see Anthony Johnson fight Jon Jones?