In a shocking turn of events this morning, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (22-6) is heading to Bellator. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani broke the news this morning saying that Johnson had parted ways with the UFC and signed with Bellator.
This is very similar to what happened with Corey Anderson when he signed with Bellator. The top UFC light heavyweight out of no where was released and signed a deal with Bellator within hours of the release.
Just this week, we posted an article about Rumble’s return to the UFC. He has been training extremely hard in his quest to try to become a champion. Anthony Johnson hasn’t fought since 2017 when he lost to Daniel Cormier.
Over the weekend, the UFC announced that they would be making a number of roster cuts before the end of the year. Rumble was going to be a fighter that was going to make a decent amount of money. One has to wonder if that played a part in all of this.
Rumble in Bellator
Per Helwani, the plan is for Rumble to fight at light heavyweight and make his debut for Bellator in the first few months of 2021. With the addition of Rumble Johnson, Bellator’s light heavyweight division just got even better.
Scott Coker’s claims to have the best light heavyweight division just doubled down with the signing of Rumble Johnson. He’s a major signing for Bellator and could easily become the light heavyweight champion.
There are so many good matchups for Johnson. He could always have a rematch with Phil Davis, fight Corey Anderson, and there’s the champion, Vadim Nemkov. I fully expect Bellator to put Johnson in the title picture very quickly.
I’m very curious to see who the promotion pairs him with first. Either way, we know that Rumble’s UFC days are over and his Bellator career will start very soon.