Since being signed to the UFC, Jose Johnson hasn’t been particularly busy. After a handful of fight cancelations and postponements, he finally made a short notice debut back in August. While that’s not how a lot of fighters would want to spend the time, Johnson could not be happier about how things went down.
“All of it has been a blessing – all of the cancelations, everything. It’s been a blessing because, honestly it gave me time to really reflect,” he explained. “I actually found out that I needed to have surgery. It was really beneficial surgery. So all in all, I’m excited for this upcoming fight and thankful for the time.”
The surgery was not one for an injury, but rather something that he’s needed to take care of for a long time.
“It wasn’t an injury at all. It was actually my vision,” Johnson said. “My vision throughout my entire fighting career – I’ve been fighting legally blind pretty much. This has fixed my vision to the point where I’m able to see perfectly now.”
It might come as a surprise to some that he was legally blind for his whole career. Afterall, his pro career is littered with knockout victories. When asked about it, he had a simple explanation for how he was able to pull of the unthinkable time and time again.
“I call it the Daredevil effect,” he said with a laugh. “Just sounds and figures pretty much.”
Now with everything corrected, he’s seeing the fight game in a new way – pun intended. And you can expect to see the best version of him yet.
“Wow, it’s significant. Even my coaches have said before I would just have a blank stare when I’m hitting mits,” Johnson said. “I was working with one of my coaches and he said ‘you’re looking at me like I’m a math problem now.”
You can catch the new and improved version of Jose Johnson on the ESPN+ prelims of UFC Vegas 82. Those fights start at 2pm EST this Saturday.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 2:14.
