Interview: Brett Johns Ahead of CW 67 'This is the Biggest Fight in Cage Warriors History'

Interview: Brett Johns Ahead of CW 67 'This is the Biggest Fight in Cage Warriors History'
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

Photo: Dolly Clew | Cage Warriors

 2013 was a fantastic year from 22-year old Brett Johns from Swansea, Wales. Begin the year 5-0 in his professional MMA career, Johns submitted Joe Orrey to earn the Pain Pit British Bantamweight title, before joining Cage Warriors where he is now also champion thanks to a TKO victory over James MacAlister at Cage Warriors 54, and decision victories over David Haggstrom and Jordan Desborough at Cage Warriors 59's 4 man Bantamweight tournament. 4-0 in 2013 Kingdom MMA named Johns are Domestic Fighter of the Year 2013, followed closely by fellow Cage Warriors bantamweight James Brum, who Johns will meet at Cage Warriors 67 in Johns hometown of Swansea this weekend.

On Tuesday night I caught up with Brett Johns to discuss his upcoming fight with James Brum, and find out how his preparations have gone for one of the biggest domestic fights of the year. 

Houten: This time last year fighting for Pain Pit and now your holding the Cage Warriors belt, how would you say your life has changed over the last year since winning the belt?
Johns: its been really tough. A year ago now I’d already signed the contract with Cage Warriors but I had fought under that contract. Believe it or not I had fought for Cage Warriors before, I fought Sam Gilbert who’s now on a 3 fight win streak, he’s doing really well at featherweight. [When] we got called for Cage Warriors, I decided to take a big deep [look] at my personal life along with my career as well. I decided to quite work and go full time, and that was probably the biggest thing for me. I had a lot or arguments with my mother, and my family about it because I wanted to do it, I'm still having the effects now. I haven’t got a job, I haven’t got much money but I still tell myself its going to be worth it. To be honest even if I quit MMA tomorrow, I've achieve what I wanted to achieve in this sport already. For me it wasn’t to be in the UFC that wasn’t the aim for this game, it was just the be the best I could be, and the best I could be was World Champion for Cage Warriors in September.

Your defending you Cage Warriors bantamweight title at Cage Warriors 67 where you will be taking on a tough opponent in James Brum. Would you say this is the biggest fight of your career?
definitely, definitely, definitely, without a shadow of a doubt this is the toughest fight of my career. He’s undefeated for Cage Warriors, I think in total he’s on a 9 fight win streak, the same as myself. He is 8-0 with Cage Warriors, and before Cage Warriors signed him he beat a guy from Tillery Combat named Martin McDonough, Mr. Pink. Personal I think this is the biggest fight for Cage Warriors in Cage Warriors history, I genuinely do. I think its bigger than any other fight, that's my personal opinion about it.
How has your camp been for this fight?
I say this to people. People think I train harder every camp, I don’t train harder every camp, I train as hard as I can all of the time, this is why for the Joe Orrey fight in Pain Pit where I won my first British title, I would train full time. I dislocated my shoulder before that fight. It was January the 1st [when I began my training camp], and I dislocated my shoulder on the 5th, so the begin of the camp. I was meant to be fighting on March the first. So I looked at my coach, and I said 'look I think I’m going to have to pull out'. So my coach was 'like no, no, no its ok, we will rehab it properly, we will do it.' Literally a few months later, we had won the belt even with a dislocated shoulder. That was huge for myself, it was real big to win that belt, and I’ve been full time ever since. I’ve been training as hard as I can ever since then. It’s not as if I go ‘shall we train harder for this fight?’ I train hard every fight. You can’t be in the mind set like 'this is an easier fight, I’ll take it easier this time.' You shouldn’t be like that, why should you be like that? Why not try 100% every time?

We are now 3 days away from the weigh-ins, how is your weight looking ahead of stepping on the scales on Friday?
Very good! One of my friends, is a full time athlete, a full time BJJ guy [his name is] Bryn Jenkins. [He's] same age as me, he’s a youngster but he’s done so much in his career on diets, he’s studied different sort of foods to eat. To be honest I’m known for not eating very well, although I’m not a small 61s [61 KG], I’m not a big 61s, I’m kind of in the middle, I eat whatever I want, but for this fight this had to change. I was meant to fight Brum December 7th but I ruptured my MCL so I was out that fight, and I put on a lot of bad weight. I was eating crap food, and I was having crap drinks and stuff. Then we hit January and I went to Bryn, and I said 'look Bryn I need help with my diet,' so my camp hasn’t been a 6 week camp, it been since the first of January. 

I was slowly repairing my knee, so the sessions weren’t as intense as they used to be [when I was 100%], but they were intense enough for them to be classed them as sessions, and Bryn gave me that. Bryn lives about a 2 minute walk away from the gym, so I said 'will it be ok if I stay with you guys?' So I stayed with the boys - we call it the fighters house, and I’ve been hear since the 1st of January. I only go home on the weekends to see my girlfriend, then back here all week. So he’s looked at my diet, all that excess weight I did have, I’ve lost that, plus more. This is the lightest I’ve been [before a fight]. I usually cut from about 71, 72 [KG]. A week out I would normally be about 8 kilos over, well I less than that now and I genuinely feel brilliant, I could fight now, and I would feel fine.

Ive spoke to a few other fighters in the past who come from a Judo background similar to yourself and most of them say they rare train pure Judo anymore. I watched your Cage Warriors count down video though and I was surprise to see you mainly in the GI, working pure judo techniques. Are you still training pure judo, and are you still actively competing in Judo?
My father is a traditionalist, although he love coming to watch MMA, he’s a traditionalist, he loves Judo through and through. That's the only sport he enjoys doing and I always get a phone call if Ronda Rouseys fighting, he wants to watch. He wants to show how Judo is the main sport, and thats him. I like to do my Judo, I like to go their [the Judo academy] and help the kids, I enjoy doing stuff like that. 

I haven’t fought in a Judo competition in a good while. The last time I fought in a Judo competition, I won my first 5 fights by arm-bar, just taking guys down to the floor and just arm-baring them. I genuinely thought if I stop doing Judo, my Judo would get bad but it hasn’t. I used to train Judo quiet intensely, I used to train every day of the week with Judo, not as intense as I do with MMA now but I was pretty intense. I train Judo about twice a week [now], but the classes when I’m not doing Judo I’m doing the equivalent of Judo, I’m doing my wrestling class. I’m wrestling with boys who are heavier, who are agile, and I’m getting better like that anyway.

James Brum is pretty good in most areas, where would you say you have the edge over James. Would you say your ground game is where you have the edge?
I think this is gonna be one of where, he will be preparing himself for a stoppage, but I don’t see it going that way for either of us really. He’s a tough guy to finish, I feel I’m a tough guy to finish, and I think this will be a five round fight. I think one of my biggest attributes is my fitness and my wrestling, and I think that will be the biggest factor. I genuinely think as well that my BJJ is stronger than Brum's. That's how I feel right now. I’ve done a lot of BJJ with the guys with me and I feel I have the advantage in the grappling side of things. I do think he will try and shoot and he will try and take me to the floor and try and grind it out. He hasn’t fought a five round fight before, and I have, I've done 5 rounds in my last fight.

I heard Brum say in a recent interview he feels people might be underestimating you in this fight saying how he felt you were one of the most dangerous opponents he's faced. Do you feel you feel people might be underestimating you in this fight?
Kind of. I think on the book he is, I think he will be the favourite to win it but like I said to my coach, I thrive on being the underdog, I absolutely love being the underdog. In a fight, I would be the underdog any time over being the favourite. I love that feel of someone [who is meant to be] better than me having to try and beat me. There is no better feeling in the world when you win. See the tournament stucture, I wasn’t even meant to win my first fight against David Haggstrom, who I still believe is one of the best Bantamweights in Europe. I genuinely believe that, I think Haggstrom is one of the best. Out of all the guys that Brum has fought, I think Haggstrom is better, not a crazy amount better but I think he’s better. You know James Brums last fight he Marat Pekov, but I believe that Haggstrom would stop Marat Pekov.

Brum is an experience opponent but your the champion, do you feel he deserves to be ahead of you in the rankings?
I think I'm ranked 5th. I think there's Vaughn Lee, then it's James Brum, then it's Ronnie Mann, then it's Davey Grant, then it's myself. Believe it of not after the world title fight I was ranked 7th, with Pennington in front of me, I did agree with that. Nothing against Pennington but he pulled out of that fight, he was hurt, he couldn't continue, and I was hurt but I continued. I was 9-0 in my career and he was like 9-1 maybe 10-1 and he was still above me in the rankings. I really didn't agree with that. Brum on the other hand, he's fought tought guys, and I can understand. He's fought Erik Perez from the UFC, that just says itself. He doesn't mind a tough fight but I think he's looking past me a bit in one of his interviews [that he recently did] with Addicted MMA. He was on about Ronnie Mann and Cory Tait. I'm there watching the video, and I'm like 'oh hang on a minute, you've not fought me yet.'

A lot of people have tipped James Brum for the UFC, does it give you extra incentive to win on saturday to stake that claim for yourself?
I've seen a lot of tweets, even before the Marat fight, 'James Brum for UFC, James Brum, James Brum' and I felt like, I'm the champ, maybe they might want to sign me. They want to sign the best in the division and truly the person with the belt is the best in the division, so maybe they wanna sign me. 

I think a win over Brum or say if he gets the win over me, there's a possibility, a very good possibility, that the winner gets to go to the UFC. So you could take this fight as a world title fight plus a fight for a contract with the UFC. To me though that's not a huge factor, I'm in no rush for the UFC. Maybe Brum is, I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not. I don't mind to if I'm in Cage Warriors for another 3 or 4 years, just to be better again. Why rush to go into the UFC, and be a one fight veteran for the UFC. I don't wanna rush and lose and then get kicked out

The Cage Warriors Bantamweight division is one of the most stack divisions in the promotion, have you put any thought into who could be next with a wins over James? The like of Ronnie Mann and Cory Tait spring to mind.
I think it will be one of them two. I think more Ronnie Mann than Cory Tait. I genuinely believe it will be Ronnie Mann who fight next for he belt and he's a tough fight, but I'm not afraid to fight these guys. I want to fight the best, that's why when Cage Warriors gave me the contract I looked at the list and I said James Brum and that's why I took that fight cause he was the best and I wanted to fight the best. I never duck a fight, if someone wants to fight me, fight me. Sign the contract and we will get it on.

You fighting Brum in your hometown of Swansea, will the crowd be like having an extra man in your corner on Saturday?
I haven't fought in Swansea but I've fought in areas close. I've fought in Newport, I've fought in Cardiff but I haven't fought in Swansea. My last fight in Cardiff, we took a good few guys up there and I really fed off that crowd. It's a big thing for me. My friends and family there supporting me, I know how emotional they get , and I take that emotion in there. I like to scream and release a bit of anger before the fight. I enjoy the support from the guys and they've been there from the start of my career.

Finally if you could give a message to James Brum ahead of your bout on Saturday what would it be?
No message really. I just wanna go in there really and do my fight and I hope he does his fight and may the best man win. Because the winner gets the belt but I can see big things happening after this fight.

Cage Warriors 67 takes place April 12th at The LC in Swansea, Wales. North American viewer can watch the show live on MMAjunkie beginning at 9 p.m. GMT (4 p.m ET / 1 p.m. PT). Other viewers can catch the event at cagewarriors.tv.