Special Feature: Interview with Joshua Johnson

(Joshua Johnson pictured left)

Hey, everyone! So recently I decided that it was time to end my writer hiatus and get back into doing what I love. The other day I was in the Walgreens store and saw a wrestling magazine featuring WWE Superstar and UFC Hall of Famer, Ronda Rousey. I have been a huge fan of World Wrestling Entertainment for years and there are different opinions on how people feel about allowing mixed-martial artists to compete in the WWE ring and if mixed-martial arts is exactly like it is portrayed on television and in UFC. Since Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey have made their impact, World Wrestling Entertainment has signed names to perform on their NXT brand such as Matt Riddle, Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir, and Jessamyn Duke. I have always wanted to interview athletes for my blog because athletes are artists themselves. I posted all around my social media accounts for people to contact me for the comeback feature and I got a response from Joshua Johnson. Joshua Johnson is from Crestview, Florida and has had a passion for mixed-martial arts for five years. I knew that his voice would break down barriers and explain what mixed-martial arts is all about.

One of the first things I learned from Joshua is that there is a huge difference between mixed-martial arts and cage fighting. “Mixed-martial arts is different than cage fighting because you have a mixture of many different styles of martial arts such as karate, jujitsu, wrestling, and wing chun. It is also different than what you see Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey do because it's not for competition. It is an art that you do because you want to learn and it catches your interest, it also teaches you discipline and how to be humble. Mixed-martial arts helps you understand different things as a human being that you learn within yourself instead of going out there and beating up someone for fun." Joshua states that his passion began when he started playing fighting video games and watching karate movies on television as a kid. He recalled the memory fondly, "I would sit in my room and practice for hours throwing punches, dodging punches, practicing different stances such as karate. boxing, and fighting." However, there were a few challeneges starting out. "The challenges I faced was learning how to be disciplined and learning how to control my anger. Being able to use the technique instead of using a full power and strength and trying to learn how to become one with yourself and being able to control that anger inside of you takes a lot of strength."

There were many things and people who helped Joshua get to where he is in his mixed-martial arts career today. Joshua explained how his martial arts coaches had a huge impact on him. "I started at one gym, then I would go to different gyms and learn different techniques, moves, and styles. I would broaden my base and not just stick with one gym but I would go to many different places to help me further learn." It would later prove that Joshua's passion would continue to greatly impact him in life. "Mixed-martial arts has impacted me to be a better person, it taught me to see life in a totally different way that others did not. It taught me to learn how to be humble and control my anger. I could turn the other cheek whenever someone wanted to pick a fight with me. Mixed-martial arts is not about violence and I learned that with different people. Back in the modern day and age, martial arts was not used to fight each other, it was used to see a different way of life. If you ask people today what they would think mixed martial arts is all about, most people would say it is all about cage fighting. If you say, for example: 'Hey, I do MMA.' They would say: 'Oh, you do UFC and cage fighting?' You would generally say that it is a hobby that you like to learn. Mixed-martial arts is not about cage fighting, people have forgotten about the art of mixed-martial arts and forgot about learning the different styles. Back in the modern day and age, it would be an honor to learn karate and then be able to transition over to jiu jitsu. Bruce Lee is a prime example. Bruce Lee trained in the art of wing chun and later combined his other influences from various into the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy. He then created his own style of martial-arts called Jeet-kune-do. That is the true definition of a mixed-martial artist. ” From listening to Joshua teach me so much and sparking my curiosity about mixed-martial arts, I was actually inspired to start learning mixed-martial arts, the basics first.

However, I had to get his opinion on what he thought about World Wrestling Entertainment hiring MMA fighters since there have been a lot of differing opinions from fans all over the internet, especially since there is a Wrestlemania match scheduled between current Raw women's champion and MMA veteran, Ronda Rousey and former Smackdown women's champion, Becky Lynch. “What they are really trying to do is to up their promotion and sales. I respect the business for trying to make that promotion. It also gives many athletes another opportunity and it opens more doors to express their art. It is the same thing with MMA, they hired WWE athletes to boost up their promotions and pay-per view buys. CM Punk went from WWE to UFC, if that makes sense. When people see their favorite WWE wrestler or MMA fighter go somewhere else or get signed somewhere else, the fans follow them. If the WWE knew they could sign Ronda Rousey, they knew that they would be able to get her fan base come along with her and that they would pay all sorts of money to see her whether it was in a different fight organization or the WWE.”

CM Punk is one of the few who has made this move. Brock Lesnar, and even recently, Jack Swagger, also got involved with MMA and UFC. Joshua also stated that Bruce Lee, Israel Adesanya, and Conor McGregor are his greatest influences in his passion. “These fighters influenced me by how they are. Bruce Lee trained constantly, almost every day. Not only was he a great mixed-martial artist but he was both very knowledgeable in both martial-arts and life. Bruce Lee had multiple videos of his knowledge and wisdom that you would take it to heart in a good way and he would make you think differently about nature and life. Israel Adesanya, his IQ for cage fighting is pretty high. Watching him fight and watching how he moves in the octagon is interesting because you can see the different types of levels in learning and it makes me want to learn more about what I am being taught. His level being able to place his punches, kicks, and knees are superb and it makes you want to go learn. Conor McGregor, that guy went from collecting welfare checks to becoming the highest paid fighter. Knowing that someone can come from the bottom and have nothing, to fighting for millions of dollars is awesome. It shows that if you set your mind to something you can achieve anything. A lot of people talk bad about Conor because of the way he talks and his level of cockiness but can you really blame the guy? This man came from nothing and showed the world what he can really do. If I was Conor, I would have some type of cockiness because it builds a lot of fight hype and it can also get more views. Not only does he talk a big game, he can also back it up. Conor called himself 'Mystic Mac' because he would predict what round he was going to beat his opponent and how he was going to do it. That is why these three mixed-martial artists have inspired me and you never know if you will fight your role model one day in the octagon so it is always good to watch.”

I would like to thank Joshua Johnson for enlightening me on mixed-martial arts, his passion, and his views on an interesting debate in sports entertainment. I will be looking forward to hearing about his upcoming fights as well as continuing to try the sport myself. I also am looking forward to seeing how WWE and UFC continue to include their athletes in different opportunities to express themselves and their businesses, especially since Wrestlemania is right around the corner. This has been such an exciting comeback article. Thank you all so much and Happy Reading!

-Melanie Lane Fontaine