Anthony Johnson returns to UFC, meets Phil Davis at UFC 172 in Baltimore

The speculation began to swirl right after Anthony Johnson‘s most recent win for World Series of Fighting, and it ramped up when “Rumble” was seen at UFC 169 this past Saturday night. But the rumor mills didn’t have to turn for long.

Johnson (16-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) will return to the UFC after a six-fight winning streak outside the organization, and he’ll take on someone who’s been sitting back waiting and wondering when he’ll get his next fight: Phil Davis (12-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC).

UFC President Dana White announced Johnson’s signing and the fight for UFC 172 on Tuesday morning.

UFC 172 takes place April 26 at Baltimore Arena in Baltimore. The card will be the promotion’s first visit to the Maryland city. The pay-per-view main card is headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and top contender Glover Teixeira. Prelims are expected to take place on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Johnson was released by the UFC a little more than two years ago after badly missing weight for a middleweight fight against Vitor Belfort. The fight went on at a 197-pound catchweight, but Belfort submitted Johnson with a first-round rear-naked choke. The missed weight was the third strike for Johnson, who twice missed the mark while fighting as a welterweight. But even moving up to 185 pounds, he couldn’t hit the target, missing by 11 pounds.

After he was let go, Johnson fought at 195 pounds and beat David Branch for Titan Fighting Championships. Then he moved to light heavyweight and stopped Esteves Jones for the promotion. After a knockout of Jake Rosholt, he signed with WSOF and knocked out D.J. Linderman in a light heavyweight bout. He moved to heavyweight for a fight against former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski and took a decision this past March.

A little more than two weeks ago, he knocked out Mike Kyle in the first round at WSOF 8 in Florida. The fight was the card’s main event, but despite the highlight-reel finish, Johnson wasn’t interviewed in the cage. With his contract up, it was widely speculated that the fighter and promotion wouldn’t be reaching a new deal. And now that speculation has been answered.

While in the UFC, Johnson has six of his seven wins by knockout, and his resume includes wins over Dan Hardy and Charlie Brenneman. But he’s been susceptible to submissions, tapping out in three of his four career losses to Belfort, Josh Koscheck and Rich Clementi.

Davis has been on the sidelines since an August decision win over Lyoto Machida in Rio de Janeiro in a fight that most major media outlets scored in Machida’s favor. But no matter, Davis ran his unbeaten streak to four fights since the lone loss of his career to Rashad Evans at UFC on FOX 2.

After that setback, the four-time Division-I All American wrestler had a no-contest against Wagner Prado after an accidental eye poke, but he stopped him with a second-round submission in Rio at UFC 153. He then picked up decision wins over Vinny Magalhaes and Machida at UFC 159 and UFC 163, respectively.

With the addition, the latest UFC 172 card now includes:

Champ Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira – for light-heavyweight title
Jake Ellenberger vs. Tarec Saffiedine
Phil Davis vs. Anthony Johnson
Tim Boetsch vs. Luke Rockhold
Joseph Benavidez vs. Timothy Elliott
Joe Ellenberger vs. Yancy Medeiros
Andre Fili vs. Max Holloway
Bethe Correia vs. Jessamyn Duke

Mmajunkie.com

IMO rumble could be the next in line for a title shot if he beats davis

Yeah cuz wsof ISNT a ufc feeder .....

Fuck off!!!!!

Well then bellator is a UFC feeder also!

Hector Lombard their champ jumped to the UFC!

Rumble was a free agent, he sign with the UFC

The reality people is that every company in the world is loosing their top talents to the UFC!

Rumble wsof

Lombard bellator

Eddie Alvarez bellator really soon

Blachowicz ksw

Road fc, pancrase, mfc, RFA, titan all will loose fighters to zuffa

Most have ufc clauses in there contracts.

Wsof is a false front watered down ufc garbage spreading to pancrase.

Willie you can be fine with fighters leaving to ufc but I'm not.

Orgs need to do 3 things.

1)stack rosters with international talent(NA orgs need Asian/Russian talent and vice versa)
2)make contracts financially lucrative enough to attract top prospects and to keep champions and talent.(like one fc did with askren bb and aoki)

3)not be welcoming when ufc comes to town don't lend fighters fir regional ufc events don't send fighters to sit ringside and definitely don't have backstage party's with Dana.

This sucks.  Wanted to see him fighting for the WSOF belt.  Hate this feeder BS and these orgs. losing top fighters and champs like this.

fka wrote:Most have ufc clauses in there contracts.

Wsof is a false front watered down ufc garbage spreading to pancrase.

Willie you can be fine with fighters leaving to ufc but I'm not.

Orgs need to do 3 things.

1)stack rosters with international talent(NA orgs need Asian/Russian talent and vice versa)
2)make contracts financially lucrative enough to attract top prospects and to keep champions and talent.(like one fc did with askren bb and aoki)

3)not be welcoming when ufc comes to town don't lend fighters fir regional ufc events don't send fighters to sit ringside and definitely don't have backstage party's with Dana.

I'm not fine with it ! Have I said that? But he was a free agent and choose to leave! It sucks really, but don't say shit about the company when everybody is loosing fighters around the world

I'm no phil davis fan but mr wonderful is gonna pick rumble apart and take him down

Davis via submission or decision

rumble was in WSOF for a reason

MR.WILLIE the WSOF shill



I wanna like WSOF and they can be a zuffa dumping ground all they want but I wish there match maker would STFU attacking Bellator and stuff...Cant stand that Ali guy

MR.WILLIE wrote:IMO rumble could be the next in line for a title shot if he beats davis

Maybe 2 more fights on top of that

Jones vs AJ would be interesting! so much bleck on bleck crime in the ufc right now!!

I'm sure cormier is more likely to get a title shot off one big win though