"I was kind of shocked. I thought I was going back to the undercard and get some no name to fight (on the prelims)," said Howard. "But now I’m on the main card fighting a main guy."
"I can’t complain; I take it as a compliment."
Howard makes no bones about who he'd really like to face though - Anthony "Rumble" Johnson:
"My beef with (Johnson) is that he went online talking all of this trash (saying) ‘I’m going to stand and bang (with Dan Hardy).’ Then he threw one high kick and took him down for 15 minutes. Really?" Howard explained on MMAWeekly Radio Weekend Edition. "That’s my beef, he talks so much crap… I’m so sick of him… he talks so much trash and he doesn’t back it up."
Howard makes reference to the Hardy fight, but this has been going on for a lot longer than that. Howard spoke to Weekly on it in March:
"He started the beef about a year ago," Howard explained. "What happened was, (the UFC) offered the fight to me for my second fight in the UFC. And I told them, ‘no, I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m still new in the UFC and I still want to be making some money out of it, and don’t want to be fighting some of the top 20 guys already.’ He took it like, oh, I was scared, I’m a (expletive), I’m a (expletive) and all this. And then call me a ‘cotton picker.’
"I got really uptight about that."
Johnson apparently thought that Howard’s reservations made Doomsday a coward, but it was the use of the term "cotton picker" that fueled Howard’s rage, blanketing him with the feeling of being disrespected in one of the worst ways he can think of.
It’s because of this, Howard now detests "Rumble" Johnson.
"The beef is real," Howard confirmed. "I can’t stand that cat. I hate that kid. The feeling is mutual."
After all this, the two men were supposed to meet at UFC on Versus 1 back in March 2010 after a bunch of trash talk between the two, but Johnson pulled out with a knee injury. Rumble talked about why he pulled out, then criticized Howard's winning effort against Daniel Roberts. Howard responded with more trash talk on twitter, the battled ensued for a while, and lately Doomsday has been lashing out with tirades like this. It's safe to say these two men would like to fight each other."I got really uptight about that."
Johnson apparently thought that Howard’s reservations made Doomsday a coward, but it was the use of the term "cotton picker" that fueled Howard’s rage, blanketing him with the feeling of being disrespected in one of the worst ways he can think of.
It’s because of this, Howard now detests "Rumble" Johnson.
"The beef is real," Howard confirmed. "I can’t stand that cat. I hate that kid. The feeling is mutual."
For now though, they'll both fight in separate bouts on UFC on Versus 4 on June 26th. Johnson will face Nate Marquardt in Nate's debut at 170, and Howard will face Kampmann. No matter the outcomes of their respective battles, you can probably count on these two getting in the cage with each other sooner than later.
UFC on Versus 4 Coverage