Anthony Johnson has a slew of supporters and Henri Hooft is certainly one of them.
Hooft is a head trainer who works with Johnson and has done so for a few years. Hooft witnessed “Rumble” fall short in his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight title bout to Daniel Cormier back in May 2015. Despite knocking down “DC” in the first round, Johnson was eventually submitted in the third round, but he’ll get his shot at redemption on April 8 in the main event of UFC 210.
In a recent interview with UFC.com, Hooft explained what went wrong in the first fight and why he believes “Rumble” would represent the UFC well as champion:
“He deserves (the title). He put a lot of effort in, he always shows up and he’s a real student of the game and a real good guy. He will be a good champion too and will be representing the UFC very well. But for me, it’s also personal. For so many years working together, we became close, and it’s always nice to have a belt. The last fight, as AJ explained a bit, there was a lot of stuff going on. The main event, first time for the title, and he also rushed in a little bit when he had DC hurt because DC is not a guy you knock out like that. (Cormier) fought all these heavyweights and is a tough guy who never got knocked out, so it was all a bit of a learning lesson, and hopefully this time around he’ll be a little bit more patient and will be better.”
