Anthony “Rumble” Johnson makes his return to The Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 172 when he meets “Mr Wonderful” Phil Davis in Baltimore.
Rumble has gone 6-0 outside the UFC since being released from the worlds biggest promotion. His release came back in January of 2012 following a losing effort to Vitor Belfort. Johnson weighed-in at 11 lbs over the middleweight limit and was cut shortly after the bout. It was the third time the former welterweight had missed weight in the UFC.
Following three wins in the regional circuit, including coming in overweight once again, he found a home in budding promotion World Series of Fighting (WSOF). After picking up three wins, including a win over Mike Kyle and a successful stint at heavyweight against Andrei Arlovski, it was rumoured that the UFC would come calling.
And they have.
At last weekends post fight media scrum, UFC President Dana White confirmed that the promotion have been keeping an eye on Anthony Johnson, but he didn’t say if, or when, an offer would be made.
But he confirmed on Tuesday morning that he will return to promotion, this time at Light Heavyweight, against #4 ranked Phil Davis. Davis is riding a three fight win streak and is coming off a controversial win over Lyoto Machida. That fight happened way back in August, and it’s unclear why Mr. Wonderful hasn’t fought earlier.
UFC 172 takes place on April 26th at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore. The featured pay-per-view main event is a light heavyweight title fight with Jon Jones defending his championship against top contender Glover Teixeira.