Athletes
Miles Johns Has Plenty Of Fight Left
Despite Some Ups And Downs, Miles Johns Is Confident About Where He Is Heading Into UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs Gamrot
Making a move from Texas to Missouri wasn’t an easy one for UFC bantamweight Miles Johns and his family. Then he got to the Glory MMA gym, won his first fight under their banner against Vince Morales last November, albeit without head coach James Krause, then when Krause was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the Kansas native had a problem.
“I was worried,” said Johns. “I was questioning everything. It was a little bit of a hard stressful time, but we got through it and we're where we need to be now. So I'm really happy about it.”
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Got through it. Happy. Those are the words you wanted to hear from the 29-year-old, who returns to the Octagon on Saturday to face Dan Argueta. With a new, but familiar, team in his corner in the form of Trey Ogden’s Marathon MMA squad, close by in Kansas City.
“It’s super similar,” said Johns of the philosophies of his current and past gyms. “Trey's just added on some things, but it's all following that same system and I'm getting what I was looking for when I came here. He was a student of his (Krause) for a long, long time, was one of those guys who wrote everything down, who knew he wanted to open a gym and was just very particular with keeping that system and adding on his own things. So I'm really happy that I landed here with Trey. Obviously, you want good bodies in the gym and we have really good bodies, but there's also more of a hands-on approach with Trey. We don't have quite as many guys, so we're really working through it together.”
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It doesn’t hurt that Ogden is also a member of the active UFC roster, with three fights under his belt, so, like Krause, he knows exactly what a fighter is going through in those tense moments before a fight. And Johns had plenty of those before the Morales fight, as he was coming off a loss to John Castaneda, a suspension that sidelined him for nine months, and now he was going to step into the Octagon without his head coach in his first bout since leaving his longtime team at Fortis MMA. It was not a recipe for a good night at the office. But Johns’ mental game was strong.
“I knew in my heart that I was making the right decision, and just seeing as you're going down the path that you think you're supposed to be down, sometimes there's bumps in the road or there's hard things that you had to get through,” Johns said. “So there was some pressure on my back going into that last fight. It was the first fight without Fortis, and of course the gym that I went to, they weren't even able to be in my corner. I'm coming off a loss and suspension, so I really wanted to get that win. It was two weeks’ notice, so I don't think I was myself. I think I was in there just to win and that took a toll on my performance, but I got through it and the experience is priceless. So I'm happy that I got that experience and I'm ready to just move on from that now.”
Highlight: Miles Johns Scores 3rd-Round Knockout | UFC 265
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Highlight: Miles Johns Scores 3rd-Round Knockout | UFC 265
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Johns got the win via unanimous decision, doubled his paycheck and moved on. Unfortunately, he was forced out of a June fight with Raoni Barcelos due to injury, but on Saturday, he gets another chance to start a winning streak against Argueta.
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That’s a good place to be in, a lot better than the one he was in pre-Morales. Then, he could have been fighting for his job, and knowing that one loss could be his last in the promotion weighed on him.
“It's takes a big toll,” he said. “I think that's one of the things that makes this the hardest sport in the world, that there is all that riding on it. My wife tries to make sure I don't feel that pressure, but I mean if I go in there and I have a great performance, I'm getting double the money I would if I don't, or I could have a great performance, slip on a banana peel and then you still only get half your paycheck no matter how hard you worked and no matter how ready you were. So that is something that adds to the toughness of this sport, but you got to just put that aside."
It’s not easy, especially when the Johns’ fourth son arrived in July, but being a fighter means that for 15 minutes, nothing matters but those 15 minutes. And Johns has proven himself up to the task, winning four of six bouts since entering the UFC after a win over Richie Santiago on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019.
Now it’s time to build off his win over Morales and start making the moves he believes will take him to the top of the division.
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“I got a lot of fight left in me and I'm trying to be in the big show for all my prime years,” he said. “So yeah, there's a lot that a fighter has a carry around on his shoulders and that he thinks about, but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to put this all aside. And I know that there was no other path for me. I know it’s cliché, but I didn't choose this life; it chose me as who I've been my entire life. So, when I start to question and put pressure on myself, I'm like, ‘This is the life that God made for you.’ And so I'm just walking it the best way I can.”
UFC Fight Night: Fiziev vs Gamrot took live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 23, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
