Miles Johns was ‘twisting in the wind’ after James Krause controversy, found ‘blessing in disguise’

When Miles Johns moved to Kansas City to train under James Krause at Glory MMA, he was convinced it was exactly what he needed to reach new heights in the UFC.

One fight later, he had to move on.

Before Johns competed with Krause as his head coach, Krause was caught in a betting scandal that led to an indefinite suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Krause was effectively banned from the UFC, with fighters threatened with repercussions for associating with him or training at his gym.

As the scandal broke out, Krause was pulled from Johns’ corner just days before he competed at UFC Vegas 65. Despite the adversity, Johns still pulled off the win. But with his coach under investigation, Glory MMA shut down soon after.

“I wasn’t really mad at James,” Johns said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I wasn’t exactly happy with the way he handled it afterward. I felt like everybody was just kind of twisting in the wind. Like, there was no guidance. But obviously, he’s going through a lot, he has a lot on his plate trying to figure that out.

“So I’m not going to say more so mad at James as much as I was reevaluating my own life decisions. I came here for that gym, and now all this is happening. At the end of the day, we’re worried about ourselves.”

Johns had a fourth child on the way when he relocated to Kansas City and was unsure what was next in his career.

“What are we doing to do? That was the question that was just ruminating in my mind,” he said. “Was this the wrong decision? So there’s a process getting through that. I have strong faith. I knew when I came here it was for the right reasons, and it was mostly for myself, because I just wasn’t in the right place mentally [at my former gym], and I needed to make a change.

“It was a revelation mentally, so I knew I was doing the right thing for me and my family. I just decided to give it time to make it work out.”

Johns turned his attention to a fellow UFC fighter, Trey Ogden, who ran Marathon MMA. Ogden was coached by Krause before he opened his own facility.

“I spent a lot of time working at Glory with James and stuff, but during that time, I feel like I’ve elevated my game in half the time working with Trey [Ogden], because I get a lot more one-on-one attention,” Johns said. “It was going to take me a little bit to get the whole system at Glory. There was a lot of good fighters, 10-plus guys from the UFC, but James obviously had a lot of other things going on aside from fighting. His mind was elsewhere than that. After all that happened, I had to make the right decision.

“I was just wondering was this a mistake? Then I find Trey, and I feel super at home at Marathon.”

Johns has put the Krause ordeal behind him and now works closely with Ogden and fellow UFC fighter Garrett Armfield.

While he appreciates what he learned in his limited time at Glory MMA, Johns feels lMarathon MMA is better suited to his future. He hopes to prove he made the right choice when he returns to face Dan Argueta at UFC Vegas 79 on Saturday.

“I don’t feel like I got the James that I thought I was going to get when I came here,” Johns said. “I think he was a little bit sidetracked mentally already and had a little bit too much on his plate when I got here. That’s not to say I didn’t get a ton of good nuggets in the time that I was there. Not only from him, but from other coaches in the gym and other fighters in the gym.

“But with Trey, I clicked a lot more, and I feel like I was able to build a relationship that I was never really going to have with James. It was a blessing in disguise. Trey ended up being what I was looking for when I came to Kansas City.”