New Zealand fighter Cole Johnson says he plans to fight a chimpanzee on a livestream, and he insists he can win.
Johnson, 24, fights out of City Kickboxing under the name Wavy MMA and has one professional fight to his name, which he won. Last week he posted a video declaring, “I 100% wholeheartedly believe that I could beat a chimpanzee in a fight.”
He laid out his reasoning directly: “A chimpanzee is two times the strength of the average human. You know who else is two times the strength of the average human? Me. I’ve been grappling and wrestling my whole life. A chimpanzee is four feet tall and 130 pounds.”
Johnson said he’s ready to answer any biting or mauling with slams and biting of his own if it comes to that, and he pushed back on anyone dismissing him as an underdog, calling himself a “trained human.”
In an interview with Brendan Ruh of Santa Cruz Medicinals, Johnson said the original video started as a joke, but he stands by the claim that he could beat a chimp in a fight.
He says the video drew a $500,000 offer in his DMs to actually go through with it. That deal fell apart, but Johnson claims a second offer worth more than $500,000 has since come together.
The opponent, according to Johnson, will be a male chimpanzee that has bitten a couple of people. He says the animal’s teeth and claws will not be trimmed for the fight, though tranquilizers will be kept on hand as a safety measure.
Johnson frames it as a personal test — man against chimp. He says a win could set up a follow-up fight against a polar bear, this time with Johnson armed with a sword. He’s already predicting he’d win that one too.
Whether this is a livestreamed fight or an elaborate self-promotion stunt, Johnson says the chimp fight is scheduled for September 11.
