Plymouth, MA - Cullen Johnson MMA amateur fighting out of Nick Newell's F.A.A. in Milford, CT. will be squaring off against New Hampshire's Ozzy Martin Saturday January 27th at Cagetitans 63. The fight promises to be one of the more exciting bouts on the card as the two are notoriously thrilling strikers. We sat down with Johnson ahead of his upcoming fight to find out about his camp, training partners, and career plans.
Q: You're fighting on the Cagetitans 63 card on January 27th. How did that come to be? Did you reach out or did they come to you with an offer?
A: I personally don't schedule any of my bouts, my team does. I honestly don't know who reached out first. I walk into the gym, my team says "Yo would you like this opportunity for a fight?" I said "Yeah, let's take it." So it works more like that. I was supposed to fight back in November, but my body has grown over time. Then I was a 155er, and now I am no longer a 155er. My body had a really hard time getting down there, so we decided to we were going to make the jump up to Welterweight. Which, my body feels stronger at anyway. So I walked in the gym, coach said "You want this fight at 170?" I said "For sure".
Q: You're fighting out of F.A.A. and your team trains with a lot of the other teams in the area. Have you been working with anyone in particular with such a large variety of sparring partners or is it just business as usual?
A: It's business as usual. I've already been in fight preparation recently. It's been most of my typical sparring partner's. Guys of different sizes too. Smaller guys like Mike Kimble, Jake Russo, Stan Rakov, to name a few. We have a young 145er named Lukman Obisean. I spar with some of the bigger guys, Quinten Paisley he's a really popular 205er in the area. We have another big guy who hasn't made his debut yet, but he will soon. His name is David. He'll be around Welterweight sized. We bring in outside guys too. No real names recently, but any bigger sized local fighters that drop in...I'm working with them.
Q: You've had 5 fights for 5 different promotions. In your opinion, what make's a promotion great from a fighter's perspective?
A: First, presentation is massive. Some shows only care about the fight, and not the presentation. Which can be good. A lot of fighters only really care about the fight. But, there's something special about when a show cares about how they deliver the fight, how they promote it, they care about the effort fighters put into promoting a fight. Those things set a promotion apart.
Cullen Johnson MMA
Q: You have a ton of experience at this point, when are you thinking about making the transition into a Pro career?
A: We've made the decision. We think I'm ready. We've already had that conversation. It's just a certain performance I'm looking for. It's a certain performance I want to get out of myself. We had the conversation a year ago so...
Q: Do you feel being the more experienced fighter, you'll get that performance this fight?
A: Absolutely. I already have the physical abilities, it's just a matter of execution. I want to put it on display. I would say over the last 3-4 months, I've really been showing it in the gym heavily. Which is why when you asked the guys that I'm working with, we've been swapping out so many faces. I would say right now, I look like a professional in the gym.
Q: The floor is yours, anything you'd like to say before we wrap up?
A: I just want to give a shout out to all the Connecticut fighters. Especially out of my gym, F.A.A out here in Milford. Shout out to Nick Newell, Justin Sumter, Mike Kimbel, Quinten Paisley, Stan Rakov, Aaron Velazquez, Lukman, Jake Russo who is fighting for Reality January 6th, Mike Antidormi, anyone that comes down and works with us, shout out to you. Anyone I fought in the past, or will fight in the future. Like me, love me, whatever, its all love.
