Johnny Case: Ramsey Nijem's a 'little punk', plans on calling him out Sunday night
Second-time UFC fighter Johnny Case has already learned very early on that even when fighting in the biggest MMA promotion in the world, you have to roll with the punches no matter what happens.
Before even making his debut, Case was faced with adversity when he was signed for a fight on short notice, but got pulled just hours later when a pre-fight eye test revealed a torn retina, which forced UFC officials to yank him from the card and send him in for corrective surgery.
By the time he made his debut, Case was already champing at the bit to prove his worth to the UFC and he did so in impressive fashion, finishing Kazuki Tokudome in less than three minutes into the first round.
For his second fight in the UFC, Case found out how the other half lived when his opponents got changed on three occasions in the weeks leading up to UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs. Siver in Boston. Case went from Paul Felder to Francisco Trevino before newcomer Frankie Perez was finally the last person on the carousel of opponents.
Truth be told, Case really didn't care who he fought as long as he got the chance to compete again.
"My confidence is as high as it can be right now. I feel so anxious and excited to get in there and fight," Case told FOX Sports. "I love to entertain people and I love to be entertaining so I just can't wait till it's my turn to get out there and put on a show."
Perez has the underdog element on his side, not to mention he's still relatively unknown by most standards. He trains out of a really good camp in New Jersey where he works alongside fighters such as Frankie Edgar and Edson Barboza, but Perez doesn't have the same accolades as his teammates so it's impossible to know exactly what he's bringing to the table Sunday night.
Case is pretending that Perez is a hybrid of lightweight champion Anthony Pettis mixed with elements of Anderson Silva and Cain Velasquez. In other words, he's treating Perez like he's the best fighter in the world regardless whether he actually is or not.
"You need to assume they are the best fighter they've ever been when they fight you," Case said. "You have to assume all the footage you've seen of them isn't everything. You have to assume they've gotten even better and also had a full camp preparing for you. You set yourself up for failure if you train all camp thinking you're going to just go out and smash whoever you're facing.
"You need to train like this guy is going to kick your ass. You need to put in every last bit of effort so you do everything to win."
If all goes well on Sunday night against Perez, Case already has his sights set on his next opponent in the Octagon and he's targeting a former Ultimate Fighter finalist, who recently got under his skin with some comments made on Twitter.
Ramsey Nijem took to the social network to put Myles Jury on blast after his loss to Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone at UFC 182. Nijem fought Jury in 2013, losing by second round knockout, but still took Jury to task calling him 'boring' and saying he had to 'chase his ass around' when they fought.
The comments quickly got under the skin of Jury's teammate Jeremy Stephens, who called out Nijem on Twitter. Unfortunately, Stephens is currently fighting at 145-pounds and Nijem is a weight class above him, which lands him right in the crosshairs of Case who would love nothing more than to silence the brash trash talker in the Octagon.
"That kid was running his mouth on Twitter saying Myles got his ass kicked by (Donald) Cerrone and Myles was a chump and all this stuff, talking s--t to my teammate Jeremy Stephens, disrespecting his girlfriend and all that. If all goes well and I get in there and get this win, I'm probably going to call this little punk out and see if his ass can back up what his mouth has been spitting," Case said.
"It's not my style to call people out, but he crossed the line. He hit a nerve with my team and my management."
Case isn't sure what rattled Nijem's cage on the night of the fight, but he'll gladly settle things in the Octagon after he gets finished with Perez on Sunday evening.
"I don't know if he's delusional or what. I would just love to get in there and get that fight," Case said. "I don't like people talking s--t about my brothers and it just makes sense. I know Jeremy would love to get in there and put hands on him, but he's a featherweight now and it wouldn't make sense for him to go back up there and knock him out and Myles already knocked him out so that leaves me. I'll gladly take that challenge."
