Anthony Rumble Johnson, a fighter for Bellator who challenged for the UFC title twice, has died. He turns 38 this year.
After news of Johnson’s death spread on social media, MMA Fighting asked a source who knew about the situation to confirm the information.
No information has been given about what happened.
Johnson’s two UFC fights from 2007–2012 and 2014–2017 are what people remember most about him.
In his first fight for the promotion, he was a promising welterweight fighter who had never been knocked out before. In his second fight, he was a light heavyweight fighter.
Johnson beat Glover Teixeira, Ryan Bader, Alexander Gustafsson, and Phil Davis in his second UFC fight, giving him two wins for the light heavyweight title.
He said he was retiring after losing the 2017 title fight to Daniel Cormier, but he came back in 2021 and beat Jose Augusto by knockout in the second round in his only game for Bellato.
In October 2021, Johnson was supposed to compete in a grand prix against Bellato’s world light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov. However, he had to pull out due to an unknown illness.
