Anthony Johnson will have to wait to put his stamp of approval on his bid for a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight title shot after all.
According to a recent report by MMA Fighting, the 32-year-old knockout artist has been forced to pull out of his UFC on FOX 20 co-main event tilt with Brazilian slugger Glover Teixeira on July 23 from the United Center in Chicago for undisclosed reasons.
No replacement has been named for Johnson as Teixeira looks to extend his divisional win streak to four after knocking Rashad Evans out at UFC on FOX 19 this past April.
For Johnson, this is terrible news considering recent Octagon success has landed him one win away from challenging the winner of UFC 200’s Light Heavyweight title fight between current champion Daniel Cormier and former divisional king Jon Jones. With a first-round knockout victory over Ryan Bader back at UFC on FOX 18 fueling his title hopes, “Rumble” was hoping to lock down the next shot at gold with a win over Teixeira.
UFC on FOX 20 will be headlined by a women’s Bantamweight bout between former champion Holly Holm and undefeated Valentina Shevchenko. But without a huge mainstream star like Johnson chipping in atop the main card, the event may suffer dearly.