Anthony Johnson might want to keep his phone handy.
UFC President Dana White could ring any second to talk about a spot on his promotion’s light heavyweight roster.
The World Series of Fighting standout and former UFC combatant Johnson recently disposed of longtime MMA veteran Mike Kyle at WSOF 8 in devastating fashion, giving White and the UFC brass something to think about in the upcoming days.
During his match at WSOF 8, Johnson followed a glancing left hand with a crushing right, and Kyle was out before he started his slow, dramatic fall to the canvas (GIF courtesy of Zombie Prophet, @ZProphet_MMA).
With the dominant victory, Johnson pushed his current winning streak to six, and he appears to be in the midst of a career resurgence.
This is where the story gets fun.
“Rumble” Johnson—the massive light heavyweight you just saw in the GIF—used to fight at a lighter weight class inside the UFC Octagon.
He wasn’t a middleweight.
He was a welterweight.
Somehow, that hulking figure pictured above cut to 170 pounds, where he fought hilariously outsized opponents such as now-lightweight Charlie Brenneman.
This cut was not met without challenge, however. Johnson became infamous for his inability to make weight, and this problem eventually led to his release from the UFC, per MMA Mania.
Following his release, Johnson was scooped up by Titan Fighting Championships and slated to fight another UFC castoff in David Branch.
The fight was contested at middleweight, a fact which would bode well for Johnson in the making-weight department, right?
Nope.
Johnson stepped on the scales and weighed in at 194.2 pounds, nearly 10 pounds off of the 185-pound limit, according to 5th Round.
With the exception of a heavyweight bout at WSOF 2—where he won a unanimous decision over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski—Johnson has settled in at light heavyweight since that time, and the results speak for themselves.
He notched knockout victories in four of his last six fights, and his latest one-punch masterpiece was downright scary.
Making Johnson’s case stronger, UFC light heavyweight contender Phil Davis recently made headlines due to his inactivity. His coach, Eric Del Fierro, said, per MMA Fighting, “Phil’s ready to fight. We’re just not getting the fight.”
In addition, the UFC light heavyweight roster is old.
Bloody Elbow writer Mookie Alexander summarized the situation nicely on Twitter:
Maybe Johnson doesn’t deserve a fight against a top-tier UFC light heavyweight like Davis just yet, but the fact remains that he has looked unstoppable of late, and his weight-cutting issues seem to be a thing of the past.
Would you like to see Johnson back in the UFC? If so, whom would you like to see him face first?
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