Keith Johnson will be looking to do something next Friday night at Titan FC 33 that he has not been able to accomplish so far in his MMA career, win his sixth fight in a row.
Johnson (10-2) has won five fights in a row twice and his most recent win came in August as he defeated former Bellator fighter Mike Bronzoulis in his Titan FC debut.
Initially, he was scheduled to meet Ben Brewer on the preliminary card next week. However, Brewer is out of the fight and he will now meet Belal Muhammad. Did the change in opponent mean drastic changes in the training camp for Johnson?
“It’s all about me,” Johnson told The MMA Report. “If someone has a certain set of skills, I might try to change stuff up but 90 percent of the time it’s about what I do. Nothing really changes. A couple of little details but nothing major.”
Johnson would go on to admit that Muhammad’s style is slightly different than Brewer, but the change in opponent does not really change what he planned to do in Mobile, Alabama next Friday night. While the game plan did not change, Johnson got pumped up for the fight when he watched the film of Muhammad due to seeing his opponent being unsportsmanlike in a previous bout.
“Usually a fight is a fight for me now,” he said. “I have had a bunch of fights and business as usual, but I watched his last fight and I did not like his sportsmanship at all. It gave me a little fuel. With like 10 seconds left, he had the back control on the guy. About to go to the decision and he started to pump his arms, getting pumped up and no big deal there. With about two seconds left, he open hand slapped the guy on the back or side of the head. That just fired me up personally because I have a gym and I teach a lot of kids. That is exactly what I tell them not to do. If you have that much energy to celebrate, I feel like you should finish your opponent.”
Nine of Johnson’s ten wins have come by stoppage and seven of those victories have come by stoppage, including a rear-naked choke submission in his Titan FC debut. When asked if he will score his tenth career stoppage win, Johnson predicted a victory in the first round by submission.
“I am going to go in there and pressure him, use my reach, size, and I feel like in this fight I should be better in every area. He is very well rounded. He is a good fighter. I feel like I have the edge in every area. Even though most of my wins are submissions, a lot of the time I get there through my strikes. Most times when you punch somebody, they give you a submission a lot quicker. That’s why I try to end it as quickly as early as possible and so I think I will probably end up submitting him in the first round.”