A week later, John Howard is still geeked about his first-round TKO of Ray Cooper III at the Professional Fighters League 4 event. It’s not that Howard didn't think he could finish last year’s welterweight runner-up; it’s the unexpected way in which the fight unfolded at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J.
DOOMSDAY! @johndoomsday with a monster 1st round knockout, earning 6 points! #PFL4. pic.twitter.com/qGT5mHRbI6
— #PFLmma (@ProFightLeague) July 12, 2019
"I was shocked that the left put him down. I had the right hand ready for him, but it was the left that put him down, man,” Howard admitted to Sporting News this week about the pair of blistering left hooks that spelled the brutal end for Cooper. “He stood back up. I gave him the left hook again. I never knew I could deliver that much power in one hand."
Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year
The 97-second finish stamped Howard’s regular season on an emphatic note, as he grabbed six points and clinched the fourth spot in the playoffs, which he’ll open against fifth-seeded David Michaud in the welterweight quarterfinals on Oct. 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Whatever transpires this postseason, Howard is fully aware of his penchant for surprising himself and overcoming challenges — as he did against Cooper last Thursday and pretty much his entire life; he was enduring obstacles even unbeknownst to him.
Just three years ago, then at the age of 33, Howard was diagnosed as being on the spectrum for autism.
Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that one in 59 children in the United States in 2014 had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ADS) by age 8, marking a 15 percent increase from 2012. A November 2018 report on ASD predicted that ASD among adults could cumulatively surpass 2.8 percent, stemming from pattern diagnosis of people born from 1980 through 2012, as reported by OpenMinds.com.
For Howard, the diagnosis as an adult served as his aha moment, as it lends credence to possibly explain why he was placed in Special Education classes growing up and more.
"When I found out, I laughed a little bit,” Howard revealed. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow. Supposedly, all this time I was disadvantaged, but I had something I didn’t know and look what I did. Bravo!’ I just couldn’t believe it. I was shocked.
“I’m on the spectrum of it, yes. I was diagnosed with it. Honestly, it’s a blessing in disguise because a lot of stuff I do, I was doing my whole life, makes perfect sense now.
"Certain habits that I was doing, my competitiveness, certain things I critiqued, certain ways I behaved in certain situations would explain why. I didn’t know what I have. Now, I know.”
Looking back, Howard believes living his life with autism actually armed him to become a viable fighter, whether it was his countless scraps on the hardscrabble streets of Dorchester in Boston as a kid, stints with the UFC (he went 7-7 there) or now during the second season of the PFL.
"My disadvantage is actually my weapon," Howard said about his autism and fighting. "The way I process things happening is totally different, but it’s beneficial to me because what I do for a living, I should be processing it that way and it makes me a better fighter. So, this (referring to being on the spectrum for autism), actually I think in my case, amplifies my fighting.
“Maybe that’s the reason I am a great fighter. It made me better.”
Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year
Howard, now 36, has certainly shown an ability to compute and progress fight to fight. His PFL 1 season-opening first-round submission loss to Magomed Magomedkerimov — last year’s champion — exposed his grappling game in early May, so he buckled down on ground training over the next several weeks. Plying his craft paid dividends, as Howard stuffed a takedown attempt from Cooper before landing those two scintillating left hooks to score the highlight-reel finish at PFL 4 on July 11.
Running the cage with three wins during the playoffs would give Howard the welterweight title in addition to the $1 million prize awarded to the champion of each weight class in the regular season/postseason format that makes the PFL unique. Howard gets chills just thinking about it.
“It’d mean the world to me," he said. “That would be life-changing for so much of the positive.
“I could be a better father to my children and give them the life I didn’t have,” added the father of four kids ranging from ages 7 to 17. “I was poor poor. I don’t want my kids to grow up that way. With this opportunity to change that, I’m going to change their lives. I’m going to give them a better chance at life than I had, for sure."
Though many would say Howard is doing pretty damn good with the "chance at life" he was given.
