UFC 142's Anthony Johnson done for now with welterweight division

After years of cutting in excess of 30 pounds – and sometimes as much as 50 – to fight in the welterweight division, Anthony Johnson likes the idea of fighting at middleweight.

So much so, in fact, that he's "so far" done with his former weight class.

"This is easy," he said. "This is going to be a lot of fun for me."

Johnson (10-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) is now 215 pounds in advance of his debut at middleweight, which comes Jan. 14 at UFC 142 against former champ Vitor Belfort (20-9 MMA, 9-4 UFC). Johnson vs. Belfort is part of the main card of the pay-per-view event. Preliminary-card bouts air live on FX.

"Everything has come to where it needs to be right now," Johnson said. "I'm peaking at the right time."

Previously, Johnson struggled just to make weight in the 170-pound divisions. On two occasions the 27-year-old failed to get down to 171 pounds, which is the minimum weight required for non-title welterweight bouts. At UFC 104, he was so weak he was carried to and from the weigh-ins, and he was fined 20 percent of his purse for the miss.

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Dead Man Walking - - Veetor

more like done forever with WW

im getting pretty stoked for this fight now. at first i wasnt really sure why johnson was going strait to fighting vitor who's last fight was silva. but now i just cant wait to see if vitor is still relavent and what rumble looks like at 185. he'll probably still be one of the biggest.

Now accepting av bets. Rumble takes this hands down.

Well since nobody else on playground is excited as I am for this, I feel no remorse destroying everyones loading screens. War rumble!