The undefeated welterweight contender from Cleveland disclosed he wants to return to the ring before the end of the year during a recent appearance on Ring CEO Rick Reeno’s “Mr. Versace Podcast.” Johnson prefers to face someone ranked in The Ring's top 10 at 147 pounds in that bout.

“Anybody in The Ring rankings in the top 10, send the contract,” Johnson said. “If I got to beat one of them to get to Devin [Haney], send the contract – whoever it is in the top 10. … I would like to fight as many people in the top 10 and end [2027] with a world title if I had it my way. I still have some climbing to do.”

In a perfect world for Johnson (18-0, 8 KOs), he would face WBO welterweight champion Devin Haney. The bad blood between them stems from their altercation at the weigh-in the day before Shakur Stevenson defeated Teofimo Lopez on January 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“Send the contract,” Johnson said when asked about challenging Haney. “Let’s fight. You got the world fooled. You’re not no ‘Deebo,’ bro. You’re Carlton Banks, bro.”

Haney (33-0, 15 KOs, 1 NC), of Henderson, Nevada, is The Ring’s No. 1-ranked welterweight for a vacant championship. He is also No. 8 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list.

Johnson, 28, is coming off a dominant unanimous-decision victory over previously unbeaten Christopher Guerrero (16-1, 9 KOs) on July 4 at Wolstein Center in Cleveland. Johnson is ranked No. 6 by the WBO, No. 9 by the IBF and No. 15 by the WBC.

Since beating Mexico’s Guerrero, Johnson said five fighters have turned down proposed bouts against him. That led to him questioning why boxing’s best aren’t fighting as frequently as they did over 40 years ago.

Johnson believes that if more bouts between the best of the best happened, it would help them gain more support regardless of whether they win or lose.

“I was born in the wrong era,” Johnson said. “Boxing has been my whole life. My dream was to always become a world champion, go to the Olympics and go down in history as one of the best fighters in the game and make it into the Hall of Fame. Become a multi-time world champion and have great fights. In the ‘80s, Tommy Hearns and ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, everybody put up great fights. They didn’t even down people who lost. They didn’t down ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard when he lost to Roberto Duran. The fans were asking for a rematch. They wanted to see that fight again.

“They didn’t down Tommy Hearns for losing to ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard. I feel like if boxing gave the fans all the fights that they were looking for, I think that hatred towards people who lose, or whatever the outcome is, I think that’ll slowly die down. I just fought somebody who was undefeated in my last fight in my hometown. I’m here to do what I got to do. Whoever they put in front of me, I ain’t ducking no action.”