Cole Johnson

Cole Johnson's athletic identity is rooted in a lifetime of grappling and wrestling — a foundation he credits as the source of both his physical capabilities and his competitive outlook. Training out of City Kickboxing in Auckland, New Zealand, a gym with a well-established reputation for producing elite combat sports athletes at the international level, Johnson has developed his grappling within an environment that integrates wrestling, clinch work, and takedown offense into a broader MMA skill set.

His grappling background directly shapes how he approaches fights, with a clear emphasis on clinch control, slams, and positional wrestling rather than sport BJJ or gi-based competition. No formal BJJ rank or gi affiliation has been documented; his training lineage is wrestling- and grappling-oriented in the mold of MMA-focused practitioners rather than competitive sport jiu-jitsu.

Johnson's self-assessment of his physical output ties explicitly to this training history. He has described himself as approximately twice as strong as the average person, attributing that level of development directly to years spent on the mat. As he put it: "I've been grappling and wrestling my whole life" — a statement he uses not merely as biography, but as a technical argument when evaluating how his attributes would translate against non-human opponents.

Johnson competes at welterweight in MMA, standing approximately 5 ft 9 in to 5 ft 10 in and weighing approximately 200 lbs (91 kg). His professional record includes a unanimous decision victory over Harlem Frost at SFC: Legacy Lives On in December 2025, a result that marked his entry into documented professional competition.

Despite that professional result, Johnson holds a ranking of 167th among amateur welterweights in the Asia-Pacific region on Tapology, in a field of more than 380 athletes — a profile that places him in an unusual position, straddling documented professional activity and a regional amateur ranking simultaneously. He represents New Zealand and operates out of City Kickboxing in Auckland.

At 24 years old, Johnson's competitive résumé remains in its early stages, but his standing within a competitive Asia-Pacific welterweight field provides meaningful context for his athletic caliber — context that extends well beyond the viral attention his online content has attracted.

The Claim and the Argument

Johnson came to widespread public attention after posting a video asserting that he could defeat a chimpanzee in a one-on-one fight. The video surpassed 5 million views and generated substantial online debate, with Johnson making a case grounded explicitly in his grappling background.

His central argument rested on a strength equivalence claim: that a chimpanzee is roughly twice as strong as the average human, and that his lifetime of grappling and wrestling places him at a comparable strength level — effectively neutralizing what he characterized as the animal's primary physical advantage. He pushed back on widely repeated figures about chimpanzee strength directly: "'Oh, it's six times stronger than a human.' First of all, no it's not. You're hearing s**t from the Internet and regurgitating it. A chimpanzee is two times the strength of the average human. You know who else is two times the strength of an average human? Me. I've been grappling and wrestling my whole life."

Tactical Approach and Fight Strategy

Johnson's proposed tactical approach is grappling-centric. His primary plan involves maintaining distance to tire the animal over a few minutes before closing to execute a slam. If the chimpanzee immediately closes the distance, his contingency is to attempt a knockout through a slam on impact. He expressed confidence in executing a slam from a wide variety of positions regardless of the animal's grip — citing his wrestling training — and identified protection of the neck and groin as his primary defensive priorities. His stated intent was direct: "I'm picking it up by its arm, f**king slamming it on the concrete, bro. I don't care if it bites or I can bite too."

Proposed Bout Conditions

The proposed bout involves a male chimpanzee with a documented history of aggression toward humans. Johnson confirmed no modifications to the animal's natural weapons are planned — "They're not going to cut the teeth. They're not going to cut the claws or anything like that" — while a tranquilizer team would stand by as a last resort if the outcome becomes decisively dangerous. The setting would be an outdoor grass enclosure. Johnson stated his intent is neither to kill the animal nor to die in the attempt: "I want to go against this wild animal and test myself against it. I don't want to k*ll this wild animal and I don't want to di3."

Johnson named $500,000 as the threshold that would induce him to attempt the fight on a live broadcast, and a website — wavyvschimp.com — has been created around the proposal. A first offer fell through after Johnson concluded the organizer lacked credibility, describing him publicly as a "bullshi**er." A second offer, reported as of September 2026 and for a larger sum, came from parties Johnson characterized as more legitimate, though "not fully above board."

The Scientific Backdrop

The scientific context behind Johnson's claims is more complicated than his argument suggests. Research indicates chimpanzee muscle produces roughly 1.33 times the peak force and power of comparable human muscle, a gap driven by a substantially higher proportion of fast-twitch fibers — a difference considered especially significant in grappling-like scenarios where explosive output matters most. Eddie Hall, the 2017 World's Strongest Man, offered relevant first-hand perspective: "I have actually met and had the, like, been in physical contact with a chimpanzee, which is nowhere near the size of the big gorillas. And their grip strength is another level."

A YouGov survey found that 17% of respondents believed they could beat a chimpanzee in hand-to-hand combat, situating Johnson's claim within a broader public conversation about the limits of human combat capability — one he has engaged with more directly and more specifically than most.

The Polar Bear Footnote

Johnson has also referenced a separate claim involving a polar bear reportedly attacking people near the Arctic Circle and slated for euthanasia, stating he had been in contact with a local tribe and offered money to fight the animal with a sword. He acknowledged having no formal swordsmanship background while expressing conditional confidence: "With a big sword, I think I have that one as well," noting he would require a dedicated training camp with a blade before attempting it.

Johnson operates under the online handle wavy.mma, a social media presence that runs in parallel with his competitive career and has proven capable of generating reach well beyond a regional MMA audience. The chimpanzee challenge video surpassing 5 million views demonstrated the organic scale of that platform, drawing in viewers with no prior awareness of his fighting record.

The crossover into the grappling community has been notable. A Reddit thread in r/grappling titled "I would pay so much to see this" reflected genuine engagement from an audience that parsed the grappling-specific arguments Johnson was making — the slam tactics, the grip considerations, the strength equivalence claim — rather than treating the proposal purely as spectacle. Commenters across platforms indicated a willingness to pay above standard ticket prices if the event were to take place, with many noting it would be without precedent.

Johnson's influencer profile and his competitive identity have become difficult to separate. His viral content drives public awareness of his grappling-based reasoning and his persona simultaneously, making the wavy.mma platform as much a part of his public presence as his record inside the cage. As he concluded in discussing the chimpanzee proposal: "Honestly, guys, I think I do have this one in the bag for me honest."