John "Doomsday" Howard is another East Coast fighter on the rise. I first saw him fight at CFFC 5, on the undercard of Kimbo vs. Mercer. He's been coming along great in his career and recently got his first UFC win at his debut at UFC 94. Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com wrote a nice article about Doomday. Here it is:

John Howard – Here Comes The Doom By Thomas Gerbasi Broken tooth, lip ripped open, blood everywhere…welcome to the fight game, John Howard. February 5, 2005. Club Lido in Revere, Massachusetts. Boston native Howard, just 21, was competing in his third professional bout, taking on local standout Mandela Kponou. And for the first five minutes, Kponou lived up to all the advance hype, giving Howard a one-sided beatdown that should have been enough for the youngster to say, ‘okay, I’m done for the night.’ “He destroyed me,” recalled Howard. “He broke my tooth, he ripped my lip – my lip was literally hanging off my face – and he really beat me down big time, and that was just the first round.” At the sound of the bell, Howard, bloody but unbowed, made his way back to the corner. His team had seen enough and was ready to call the fight. “No, no, no, no,” came Howard’s response. “This guy just broke my tooth. I’m not leaving this ring until I leave with something. There’s no way I’m going home, looking at my mother and telling her I got beat down and didn’t do nothing back. If I die, then come get me. But if I’m still breathing, leave me alone – I’m going in.” His corner acquiesced and let Howard come out for round two. Kponou didn’t have a chance. Howard came back in the second stanza, held his own, and then just past the midway point, he found the opening he needed. “I caught him in a heel hook, and it wasn’t even in properly, but I was so mad and emotional that I just went for it with everything,” said Howard. “I ended up snapping his ankle and he tapped out.” That was the night John Howard became a fighter. “If that was the worst possible thing that could happen to me, yes, I can be a fighter,” he said. “I can deal with anything they throw at me.” Plus he was able to go back to his mother’s house and show that her son didn’t back down in a fight. The reaction coming back was understandable. “My mother was happy I won, but she was like ‘what are you doing? Do you really need to do this? Are you serious? Stop,’” he laughs. “Unfortunately she doesn’t watch the fights anymore because she don’t want to see that again, but she supports me, and she’s happy I’m doing something positive, she just wishes it wasn’t this and she wonders how I picked this sport.” “But you don’t pick this sport,” he said. “It picks you.” And once it picks you, it sinks its hooks in and won’t let go. That was the case with Howard, who began fighting in 2004 and quickly built up an unbeaten 5-0 record on the New England circuit before going through a year long funk in 2006-2007 that saw him go just 2-4 with another win over Kponou and decision defeats to current UFC middleweights Dan Miller and Nick Catone. It was then that the original light heavyweight realized that 185 pounds was still too big for him to compete on a level playing field. “That was part of the reason – I was fighting above my weight,” said Howard. “I first started at 205 and then went down to ’85, and at 185 I was too small. I was fighting guys who were really bigger than me. I was doing pretty good and I was still beating some of them, but it was a weight class that I never should have been in in the first place. Me, I was like ‘I just want to fight,’ so I did it anyway. And two of the guys I lost to are in the UFC right now – Dan Miller and Nick Catone – and those guys are monsters in the UFC, and I’m one of the only guys who took them to a decision.” Howard even broke Miller’s cheekbone in their closely contested 2007 bout, one that the New Englander believes could have gone either way. But once Howard made the drop to 170, he’s been a changed fighter who is currently riding a four fight winning streak. Oh yeah, and his last fight was on the UFC 94 card and just happened to earn him Fight of The Night honors for beating a quality veteran in Chris Wilson. That’s a long way from Club Lido, but the exciting win over Wilson didn’t really hit him until he got back home to Boston. “When I got home and saw the fight, that’s when I realized the impact,” said Howard. “After the fight, I thought the fight was good, but I thought my performance level was awful. But when I saw it, I was like ‘oh shoot, maybe I did do pretty good.’ (Laughs) There were a few shots he caught me with, and he kicked me off my feet, which impressed me, but it was just amazing to have a fight like that in the UFC. You only could dream about that.” It was no dream though, and once Howard got over the first-time UFC jitters, he was off, and he didn’t stop until he had put in his 15 minutes of work. It was an impressive debut to be sure, but in beating Wilson, he also proved he belonged on the UFC level. “After that fight, I felt like I really belonged and that this is gonna be my new home for some time, hopefully for the rest of my career,” he said. “Now, I’m at the point where I need to stay here – I want to make my spot in the UFC, and say I own this spot and deserve it.” Expected back in the Octagon later this year, Howard’s goal now is to keep moving up the middleweight ladder, but he admits that every fight could determine whether he moves up or if the ladder is pulled out from under him. “I do feel I control my own destiny, but only to a degree, and I still think it’s up in the air,” he admits. “I’m really religious and I think God has a plan, so my thing is to follow that plan. For right now, this is my path, I’m gonna follow it to where he sees fit. I feel my destiny is kinda in my hands, but it could be here today, gone tomorrow, so I stay humble and I live for the moment. That’s all I can do – live for the moment, appreciate the moment, and hopefully there’s a lot more moments to come in this career of mine.” There should be, especially when looking at Howard’s body of work, which includes fights over his weight, fights against more experienced foes, and fights where he had to dig deep in order to pull out the victory. In other words, win or lose, he’s bringing it. “I have a lot of heart, and I just go in there trying to fight,” he said. “I tell everyone, I don’t guarantee a win or a loss, but I guarantee a fight. I’m gonna fight with my heart, and that’s what I go in there with. So far I’ve survived with my heart, and that’s what I keep doing.” And truth be told, as far as the 26-year old is concerned, fighting in the UFC is still a surreal trip. “It’s amazing,” said Howard, 11-4. “When I first came in and I saw Jon Fitch, I was like ‘wow, I watched this guy on TV, I’m impressed with him,’ and then I thought, ‘I might be fighting this guy soon. Oh my goodness, what am I doing?’ (Laughs) But it’s an honor to be fighting with these guys. It was an honor to fight Chris Wilson. I saw him on TV, he took Jon Fitch to a decision, and it was a close fight, so I was honored to even be considered on that level and to be able to be in the same ring with guys like that.” At least until the bell rings – that’s when “Doomsday” comes in. “Doomsday” you ask? He’s the guy who took out Superman – how’s that for a statement to the welterweight division and particularly the man at the top, champion Georges St-Pierre? But do people get it? “Some people get it and they respect it,” said Howard of his moniker. “But a lot of people don’t know that Superman was actually killed at one point in time. And you have to give Doomsday respect because he killed Superman. Doomsday got killed in the process, but at least he did it. Nobody else did. It’s a little ballsy, but hey, people like it.” They’ll like the fighter behind the nickname too.

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