{"id":101096,"date":"2025-08-27T15:30:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101096\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:30:13","slug":"tiny-heavyweight-plots-dramatic-career-change-after-knocking-out-6ft-6in-rival-in-64-seconds-to-earn-ufc-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/101096\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny heavyweight plots dramatic career change after knocking out 6ft 6in rival in 64 seconds to earn UFC contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Donte Johnson plans to complete a 50lb body transformation after signing for the UFC. <\/p>\n<p>The 6-0 prospect competed in the opening bout of <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/dana-whites-contender-series\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"4169\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dana White\u2019s Contender Series<\/a> on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>Standing at 6ft 6in and weighing 229lbs, Darion Abbey looked like he\u2019d be a hard man to beat. <\/p>\n<p>It looked like a mismatch when Donte Johnson, who gave up seven inches in height, stood across from his gigantic opponent \u2013 but it didn\u2019t matter as the 5ft 11in, 209lb heavyweight stormed to a 64-second knockout victory. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2232279536-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Donte Johnson knocks out Darion Abbey\" \/>Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLCDonte Johnson eyes welterweight UFC debut <\/p>\n<p>After becoming the latest addition to the UFC\u2019s heavyweight division, Johnson immediately announced his intention to exit the division that is <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/06\/24\/tom-aspinalls-dad-rips-ufc-for-announcing-undisputed-status-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-baku\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ruled by Tom Aspinall<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old plans to drop a ton of weight to fight people his own size in MMA\u2019s premier promotion. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m open to anything from 170 all the way up to heavyweight,\u201d Johnson said post-fight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m capable of getting down there [170lbs]. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, that\u2019s really as big as they come. 6ft 6in, 226lbs. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m ready for whatever, but as we go along, we will make smarter business moves.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI haven\u2019t weighed 170 since middle school, to be honest. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can make 185, for sure. 170, we\u2019re gonna have to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dana White signs 5 Contender Series stars <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/08\/20\/dana-whites-contender-series-episode-2-results-as-josh-hokit-and-four-others-earned-ufc-contracts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dana White signed five fighters<\/a> at the end of last week\u2019s Contender Series episode. <\/p>\n<p>The UFC CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/08\/27\/dana-white-awards-five-ufc-contracts-as-just-one-fight-gets-out-of-the-first-round-on-contender-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">awarded five contracts again<\/a>, as just one fight got out of the first round on Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n<p>Donte Johnson Manoel SosaAbdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev\u00a0Marcio BarbosaRyan Gandra<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you bring these kids in, and not every fight can be a barn burner,\u201d White admitted. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut most of the time they are, I say it all the time; this is your one shot to show us who you are, I don\u2019t care what it says on your record or what you\u2019ve done, tonight show us who you are.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo tonight is an absolute perfect night, they did [seize the opportunity].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donte Johnson plans to complete a 50lb body transformation after signing for the UFC. The 6-0 prospect competed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,10359,57817,638,82,640],"class_list":{"0":"post-101096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dana-white","11":"tag-donte-johnson","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}